Index

Preface 04

Football in the chronicles of José Lins do Rego, Mario Filho and Fatima Martin Rodrigues Ferreira Antunes 06

Maracanã: temple of Pedro de Castro da Cunha e Menezes 20

Brazil’s greatest World Cup rivals Mário Araújo 34

Interview: 46

Scars (a football story) Luiz Ruffato 52

Football and literature: bad passes and give-and-go João Cezar de Castro Rocha 64 78 Two questions for Pelé

Foreign policy and football 80 Vera Cíntia Alvarez

Brazilian south-south cooperation in sports 92 Marco Farani

96 Interview:

Football in Brazilian music 98 Assis Ângelo

Football, field of words 104 Leonel Kaz

Football and national identity 112 Luiz Carlos Ribeiro

122 Football in Portuguese Preface

Although has been credited with the invention of football, the origins of the sport go back much further. Both the Chinese and the Greeks, before the Christian era, as well as the Florentines during the Renaissance, played games based on moving a sphere with their feet. Tsu-chu in China, Kemari, in , Epyskiros, in , and Harpastrum, in the Roman Empire, are some of the names of rudimentary forms of the game that became known as football. Developed by the English starting in the 12th century, it was only in the first half of the 19th century that football acquired a set of rules, seeking to differentiate it from rugby, another very popular sport in British schools. In 1863, was created, consolidating the rules and organizing the first games and tournaments of the new sport.

In , the so-called “British sport” would have its start three decades later, when , a boy from of English parents, returned from England bringing two leather balls in his suitcase. The passion for the game began to spread rapidly, and during the early years of the 20th century, many football clubs were started in São Paulo, and other Brazilian cities. The players were in their majority of European background. A few years later clubs such as Bangu and Vasco da Gama, from Rio de Janeiro, and Internacional, from , started accepting black and interracial players, a fact that would prove essential to the emergence of a whole lineage of talented football players, who would revolutionize the way in which football was played, and associate Brazil with excellence in this sport.

The World Cup, first played in 1930, presented, from the beginning, a great stage for world football, where various nations displayed their skills to an international public increasingly interested in this new form of entertainment. After modest participations in the first two World Cups, the Brazilian team would show its strength in 1938, thanks to the skill of da , a black player of undeniable brilliance who astounded the European audience with his refined technique.

4 • FOOTBALL The quality of Brazilian football, followed regularly in regional championships which were increasingly enjoyed by the public and promoted by the media, made the country believe that it could attain international supremacy in the sport. And more than that, it could affirm the potentialities of Brazil as a nation, racially mixed and with unique talents and abilities, worthy of respect and admiration. At that point, therefore, Brazilian football was already more than a popular form of entertainment; it was Brazil’s cultural contribution to the world.

The five victories in World Cups, starting in the 1950s, and the emergence of players such as Pelé, , Zico, Romário and Ronaldo provided Brazil with international recognition regarding its excellence in football, and contributed to project a positive image of Brazil to the world. To prove this, one needs only to note that from 46 players who were invited to play with the Brazilian national team, just five were playing for Brazilian clubs at the time they were invited; all others were under contract with some of the strongest clubs on the planet, enchanted by the special way play the sport.

The current edition of the magazine Texts from Brazil offers readers some of the main aspects of this unique element of Brazilian culture that is football. The magazine has attempted to balance critical essays, which seek to analyze the importance of football in the construction of a national identity, with more journalistic articles, which describe the daily love Brazilians have for the sport. Also included are some interesting comparisons between football, elevated to the position of a great cultural expression of our country, and other artistic expressions, such as music and literature. The presence of football in literature is represented by a short story from the award-winning writer Luiz Ruffato. The great masters were also invited to express their opinions: in three interviews Pelé, Zico and Sócrates share their opinions on current issues of great importance to both Brazilian and world football.

Throughout the magazine, the reader will find boxes with historical curiosities and information on some of the most important Brazilian players of all time, as well as a list of common expressions in Portuguese that had their origins in football jargon.

Aware of the excellence of Brazilian football and its contribution in promoting Brazil throughout the world, the Ministry of External Relations has given special attention to international cooperation in sports, a theme that deserved detailed attention in this edition of Texts from Brazil . In addition, in its role of promoting Brazilian culture abroad, the Ministry of External Relations’ Cultural Department has increasingly sought to support exhibitions, talks, book signings, film showings and other events related to football.

We invite the reader to enjoy in these pages a little of the history of , and understand how it became one of the most cherished treasures among Brazilians. The current edition of Texts from Brazil comes with an insert of stickers of posters of all 19 World Cups, in the best style of the sticker albums that have enchanted, in the past as now, admirers of this extraordinary sport.

FOOTBALL • 5 Football in the chronicles of José Lins do Rego, Mario Filho and Nelson Rodrigues

By Fatima Martin Rodrigues Ferreira Antunes

The World Cup of 1938 was the first Brazilians were able to follow live on the radio. It had unthinkably high audience ratings and made football even more popular in Brazil. The radio novelty brought fans closer to the games, because they could cheer the plays in real time. If radio fueled enthusiasm, print journalism contributed to extend the feeling of involvement that remained with the fans after the games, and promoted the debate about the success of the Brazilian team, which placed third in .

6 • FOOTBALL Ramón Muniz

While Brazilians turned their eyes towards football Their descriptions of Brazilian culture and people and sought to understand how the English game are extremely rich and became the basis of many was being reinvented on tropical soil, it was also schools of interpretation of the country’s condition. the time when many intellectuals started to think These intellectuals were proud of their nationalism; about national issues and national identity, in the for them, nationalism was the process of becoming so-called “Brazilian studies” — essays on historical conscious of the limitations and virtues of the interpretation, often written from a sociological idiosyncratic Brazilian society. perspective. At the time, sociology was understood more as a point of view than an objective research of These ideas became landmarks in thinking about social reality. Studies done by Paulo Prado (Retrato Brazil and Brazilians, and their influence went do Brasil, 1928), Gilberto Freyre (Casa Grande & beyond the limits of academic studies, extending Senzala, 1933), and Sergio Buarque de Holanda into art, social sciences, and other literary genres. (Raízes do Brasil, 1936) explored the origins of They influenced intellectuals, students, journalists the Brazilian national character; they sought to and artists, who, through their art, generated their reveal the country’s internal logic, in order to better own interpretations of the subject, established understand it and design policies to improve it. new associations between ideas, and extracted

FOOTBALL • 7 surrounding national identity in football chronicles published by these authors between 1950 and 1960, a period marked by growing industrialization and FOOTBALL marked populism in politics.

PLAYERS José Lins do Rego and the brothers Nelson Rodrigues and Mario Filho are considered the greatest Brazilian Castilho – 1927-1987 football chroniclers, due to the frequency with which they wrote on the subject, the literary quality Position: goalkeeper of their texts, and the influence they had over the Clubs: Fluminense readers. They were great supporters of the sport and Brazilian national team: 1950-1962 passionate fans. Writing was their main activity, but (25 games) they were also successful in other areas.

José Lins do Rego, a director of the Clube de Regatas do Flamengo and a member of other sports organizations, first became famous as a writer and new meanings which had not been perceived in novelist. Menino de Engenho (1932) and Fogo Morto previous readings. The result of this reassessment of (1943) are among his most famous works1. Mario Brazil and its people also reached newspapers and, Filho was a journalist and owned a sports newspaper consequently, literary essayists, who were viscerally — Jornal dos Sports. This activity enabled him to connected to newspapers. be connected to many people in the sports world, as well as politicians and intellectuals2. Nelson The ideas expressed in the “Brazilian studies” would Rodrigues was not involved with professional continue to echo for decades in the chronicles of football or politics but, as a playwright, he was close José Lins do Rego (Vila do Pilar, PB, 1901 — Rio de to many intellectuals and artists of the time3. The Janeiro, RJ, 1957), Mario Filho (, PE, 1908 — Rio three were friends and moved in the same circles. de Janeiro, RJ, 1966), and Nelson Rodrigues (Recife, They were often at press sections of stadiums, PE , 1912 — Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 1980). In all these newsrooms, football clubs, bars and restaurants; it texts, football was the main subject. This idea was was a period of great cultural vitality, and the three part of my doctoral thesis, published by the Editora of them could be found in any place where artists UNESP in 2004 under the title Com Brasileiro, Não and intellectuals gathered in Rio de Janeiro. Among Há Quem Possa!: Futebol e identidade nacional em their favorite places was the José Olympio bookstore José Lins do Rego, Mario Filho e Nelson Rodrigues (and publishing house) inaugurated in 1934 at [Nobody Can Match Us!: Football and national the Rua do Ouvidor. It became the third largest identity in José Lins do Rego, Mario Filho and Nelson publishing company in Brazil, due to its investment Rodrigues]. In my thesis, I analyzed the discussions in the most profitable literary genre — the novel. But

1 José Lins do Rego is recognized today as one of the most important writers to portray Brazil’s countryside and its characters, taking part in a literary movement later known as “regionalism”. 2 Maracanã stadium is actually named Mario Filho Stadium, after the writer. 3 Nelson Rodrigues is also known as a great chronicler of Brazil’s urban characters in the 1940s and 1950s, depicting in a very interesting and ironic way the contradictions and false morality that were inherent to apparently perfect middle-class families.

8 • FOOTBALL its fame really came from publishing the book Documentos Brasileiros [Brazilian Documents], whose first volume was the now classic Raízes do Brasil [Brazillian Roots]4.

Like other writers of the period, José Lins do Rego, Mario Filho and Nelson Rodrigues lived at a time of renewed interest in Brazil. They were in tune with their time, and their chronicles, based on football, often included concepts from the “Brazilian studies.”

PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE OF A PEOPLE Originally from the state of Paraíba, José Lins do Rego became known for novels that portrayed the heyday and decadence of northeastern Brazil, based on the production and export of , large , and patriarchal society. His concern was to analyze living conditions in the Northeast, by recreating the regional culture in its various forms: language, eating habits, superstitions.

Zé Lins, as he was affectionately called by his friends after moving to Rio de Janeiro in 1935, was indifferent to football until 1938, when he followed with enthusiasm the first radio broadcast of a World Cup. He became enchanted with the brilliance and charisma of Leônidas da Silva,

Brazilian’s hero of the World Cup campaign in Conteúdo Expresso France. At the time, Leônidas played for Flamengo, Nelson Rodrigues, an important artist and intellectual, was also a huge football fan. and because of his admiration for the player, Zé Lins became a Flamengo fan. Later, he would school in Recife. His football chronicles published be recognized as one of the greatest fans, and in the Jornal dos Sports between 1945 and 1957, directors, in the history of the club. in the column “Esporte e Vida” [Sport and Life], covered issues pertaining to national identity, Zé Lins was committed to “social observation,” engaged in comparisons between Brazilians probably due to his friendship with Gilberto Freyre, and foreigners, and appointed their respective that traced back to the times when he attended law strengths and weaknesses.

4 Raízes do Brasil, by Sergio Buarque de Holanda, is one of the most famous titles that try to explain Brazil and the country’s national character. His theory that the Brazilian is above all “o homem cordial” [the heartly man], a man whose thoughts and actions are always influenced by his likings and dislikings, his passions, friendships and enmities — in short, a man incapable of cold rationality — is a very popular theory to date.

FOOTBALL • 9 As did Gilberto Freyre in the article “Mulatto Foot- Writing about the Brazilian performance during the ,” published in the Diário de on 1932 World Cup, a championship jointly hosted by June 17th, 1938, José Lins do Rego saw a connection Brazil and , Zé Lins explained how football between Brazilian football and dance, specifically promoted racial democracy in Brazil (he actually , the rhythm often associated with the used the term “social democracy” in his chronicle). Brazilian national identity. He seemed to forget The focus of the article was cultural, not political, that football came from elsewhere; as he saw it, and he borrowed the idea of racial democracy from just as samba could be seen as Brazilian in spite of Gilberto Freyre: its African origins, also football was an expression The youngsters who triumphantly represented us in , in reality portrayed our social democracy, where Paulinho, son of an important family, played alongside the black Leônidas, the mulatto Gradim, the white Martim. All this done in typical Brazilian fashion. (Jornal dos Sports, pub. RIBEIRO, 1999:50)

José Lins do Rego believed that Leônidas da Silva was a case study in Brazilian racial integration. The “Diamante Negro” [Black Diamond], as he was called, contradicted theories that affirmed the inferiority and fragility of mixed races: he was strong and smart. Inspired by Gilberto Freyre, Zé Lins applauded the dionysian Leônidas, seen as the supreme incarnation of interracial football in Brazil, which was closer to art than to sport: “Leônidas today is a case for those who wish to study in Brazil” (Jornal dos Sports, 03/16/1949).

With moves reminiscent of capoeira [an Afro- Brazilian dance-fight], and a taste for flourishes and innovation, the kind of football played in Brazil

Conteúdo Expresso represented Brazilian’s emotional self, in the same Sociologist Gilberto Freyre’s ideas were a source of inspiration for football journalists. way as bullfighting was identified with and Spaniards. His reasoning was simple: interracial of Brazilian “novelty,” the result of a rich cultural football represented and synthesized Brazilian fusion. Zé Lins felt proud when he saw Brazilian identity. He defended this thesis in the chronicle football players fool foreign adversaries with magical “Fôlego e classe” [“Lungs and Class”], published in and festive passes and dribbles; following Freyre, he 1945 in the book Poesia e Vida [Poetry and Life]. For saw this as an expression of the joy Brazilians had him, a football match consisted of an “exhibition of inherited from Africans, and which was the reason human nature,” thus revealing the personalities of for the novel way football was being played in Brazil. the players battling on the field.

10 • FOOTBALL The Spaniards made their bullfights a psychological portrait of a people. They put so much body and soul into these savage spectacles that they can explain Spain more clearly than piles of books written by FOOTBALL sociologists. Those who speak of barbarity in the killing PLAYERS of bulls are also those who speak of stupidity regarding the game of football. And so they generalize. (…) They poke fun of those who spend two hours observing the Gilmar – 1930 bicycle kicks of a Leônidas, the dribbles of a Domingos [da Guia]. For them this is degrading. However, there Position: goalkeeper is a grandeur in football that escapes those who are Clubs: Corinthians, Santos too sophisticated. It is not just that the spectacle grips Brazilian national team: 1953-1969 us, intoxicates us, and at times, destroys our nerves. In (94 games) the battle involving the 22 men on the , one can observe true exhibition of human nature subjected to a objective, which is the desire for victory. unity and, consequently, to overcome regional However, the candid and democratic feelings differences. He believed that football revealed the appointed in this celebration of miscegenation didn’t civility of Brazilians, a valuable trait and an essential seem to be the only dominant Brazilian traits. Vanity, requirement for Brazil to be included among for example, which had already been mapped by developed countries. Zé Lins relentlessly prompted Paulo Prado, Gilberto Freyre and Sergio Buarque de Brazilians to act and reverse a history of adversities. Holanda as an unmistakable component of Brazilian character, was seen by Zé Lins as a very negative RAISING THE VEIL OF THE BRAZILIAN SOUL trait, resulting from excessive individualism. In 1936, the journalist Mario Rodrigues Filho became Reflecting on the formation of Brazilian society, the owner-director of the Jornal dos Sports, one of the Sergio Buarque de Holanda had claimed that most prestigious publications of its kind in the country. excessive individualism in Brazilians was connected As such, he exerted great influence over sports and to the “incapacity of solid group organization” and sports journalism in Rio de Janeiro, becoming “Brazil’s the frailty in the feeling of solidarity. football minister without a title,” to quote Ruy Castro’s definition. The respect he attained not only in sports, Zé Lins thought of himself as a social observer, who but also among politicians and intellectuals, allowed highlighted the qualities and faults of Brazilians; him to act decisively in the politics of promoting and his definition of our national identity reflected the professionalizing football. He gained the confidence of concerns of an era when Brazil tried to assert itself in President Getúlio Vargas5 and had direct access to his a new political and economical order after World War cabinet, both during the “Estado Novo” dictatorship II. He saw football as an arena to promote national (1937-1945) and during Vargas’s constitutional

5 Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (1882-1954) was the president of Brazil from 1930 to 1945 and from 1950 to his suicide in 1954. His government brought about social and economic changes that helped modernize the country. Although denounced by some as an unprincipled dictator, Vargas was revered by his followers as the “Father of the Poor,” for his battle against big business and large landowners. His greatest accomplishment was to guide Brazil as it weathered the far-reaching consequences of the Great Depression and the accompanying polarization between communism and fascism during his long tenure in office.

FOOTBALL • 11 contribution to the history of Brazilian culture and society in its transition to being predominantly urban.” The book showed how football was a means FOOTBALL of social mobility to black and mixed race people in Brazil, while also contributing to their integration in PLAYERS society. Football was also appointed as fundamental to the valorization of black people’s contribution to Leão – 1949 Brazil’s cultural formation.

Position: goalkeeper The same disciplined and methodic approach was Clubs: Palmeiras, Vasco, Grêmio, present in the chronicles Mario Filho published Corinthians, Sport weekly in the magazine Manchete Esportiva, Brazilian national team: 1970-1986 between 1955 and 1958, and in the Jornal dos (80 games) Sports. In both cases he transmitted the emotions

mandate (1951-1954). In the luxury suites of stadiums, he was always guaranteed a seat next to important people. Juscelino Kubitschek6, president between 1956 and 1961, was fond of Mario and always responded to his requests. He often watched games at the Maracanã stadium with his friend José Lins do Rego. Zé Lins was myopic and trusted Mario’s opinion, specially in questionable plays.

The knowledge accumulated through his profession allowed Mario Filho to also distinguish himself as a chronicler and an unofficial historian of Brazilian football. In 1942, he started a daily column in the newspaper , “Da primeira fila” [From the front row], in which he made public his investigations on the history of football in Rio de Janeiro and displayed competence as a researcher. Five years later, those texts were published as a book entitled O Negro no Futebol Brasileiro [Blacks in Brazilian Football]. Gilberto Freyre, who wrote the preface at José Lins do Rego’s request, described it as the first book to approach football “from a sociological or para- sociological point-of-view,” providing “a valuable Vasco da Gama was one of the first Brazilian football clubs to hire black players.

6 During his presidency (1956-1961), Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira built Brazil’s modern capital, Brasília, in order to promote development in a largely unpopulated area, Brazil’s Midwest. His term in office was a period of economic development and modernization.

12 • FOOTBALL of someone who had witnessed the events in the from ordinary events in the football world, Mario stadium and complemented his information directly Filho engaged in a work method that consistently in the locker rooms in a clear and unpretentious explored the emotional profile of Brazilians, whether manner. This unique hands-on knowledge of football players or fans. events, described in a colloquial, agile and moving language gained Mario the trust of the readers. He often focused on conflict between rationality and irrationality, trying to explain the origins of His chronicles were written as considerations on numerous attitudes that characterized the “Brazilian facts of the past, but were always triggered by way”, its faults or imperfections, always with the current events. There was also analysis, though objective and hope of contributing to help Brazil infused with momentary euphoria. These digressions overcome its perceived weaknesses. about the history of football, unpretentious and reminiscent, form a cohesive vision regarding the Mario Filho often said that, in the past, Brazilian social importance of the . Starting fans had identified with the fluid and unpredictable style of Leônidas, also known as “Elastic Man” and “Black Diamond”. According to his analysis, between 1930 and 1940, Leônidas, a black man, synthesized the ideal of Brazil’s national character, due to his acrobatic moves and brilliant skill. With these traits, Leônidas enchanted fans from Brazil and the world.

(…) The sobriety, often perceived as an English trait, of Domingos [da Guia], did not move the fans. Leônidas was considered more Brazilian. That was Brazil: a little arrogant, fluorescent. Many players felt obliged to try their own acrobatic moves with the ball, knowing it pleased the public and believing that, without it, they would be thought of as less skilled. (Manchete Esportiva, 12/10/1955)

FOOTBALL TRIVIA

The Brazilian football club who has provided the

Arquivo CR Vasco da Gama most players to the Brazilian national team is Vasco da Gama was one of the first Brazilian football clubs to hire black players. Flamengo, with 117. Botafogo is the club with the most players called to World Cups: 46.

FOOTBALL • 13 Mario insisted that the talent and skill of black and expected that he incorporates the best human virtues, interracial Brazilian players were recognized and and in this case, the best Brazilian virtues. admired after Leônidas. However, in the “Note to the second edition” of O Negro no Futebol Brasileiro, Mario When Brazilians blamed Barbosa, Juvenal and , stated there had been a resurgence of racism in Brazil they were blaming themselves. (…) after the loss of the 1950 World Cup final. For a while, it seemed that racial integration was not fully achieved Deep down the fan wants the player to be better than in Brazil: after the loss of the World Cup, part of the him. The player represents the fan, his club, his state, public opinion seemed to view blacks as an obstacle to and his nation. The player’s defeat is the fan’s defeat. The “the full development of the Brazilian race”, the ones Brazilian people were the one who lost the Cup in 1950. responsible for transforming Brazilian people into an And those who did not play in the pitch seemed to have “interracial sub-race”. This reaction, however, was lost more than those who did. (RODRIGUES FILHO, 1964) temporary, and caused by the strong identification of the fan with the football player, from whom the fan In Mario’s opinion, the tendency to overvalue football expected the performance of a semi-god. Mario Filho begins after 1933, when professionalization became believed that this identification was so strong that, had official, intensifying even more individualism in Brazil been champion in 1950, certainly the hero would Brazilian football. The football , now a national have been black, as had happened with Leônidas during idol, sought more privileges and favors, trying to set the 1938 World Cup, when the third place had been himself apart from other players. According to the welcomed as a great international accomplishment. chronicler’s interpretation of individualism — seen as a “national tendency,” a certain collective propensity It is true that Brazilians, berating themselves at that —, it would be almost impossible to eradicate. moment, called themselves an interracial sub-race, a sub-race without a backbone. The excessive individualism of coaches and football stars sometimes end up leading to humility and Few realize the demands placed on a football player. “platinismo” (admiration for Argentine football) He must represent a club, a city, a state, the nation. It is among the fans — or praise of English soccer, or Hungarian, or any foreign brand of the game. The admiration for everything foreign and its underlying dilemmas were summarized by Mario Filho in the expression “Brazilian complex.” FOOTBALL PLAYERS Mario Filho praised racial integration and football- art as central elements of being Brazilian, and Garrincha was the highest expression of that. With Júlio César – 1979 his crooked legs, Garrincha offered the great lesson of the 1958 World Cup: self-acceptance. He wasn’t Position: goalkeeper imitating anyone; foreigners were dumbfounded by Clubs: Flamengo e Internazionale () his bewildering dribbles. For Mario, Garrincha again Brazilian national team: 2004-2010 confirmed the skill of interracial Brazil, much like (47 games) and Leônidas, whose trajectories he analyzed in O Negro no Futebol Brasileiro. In

14 • FOOTBALL his chronicles at Manchete Esportiva, Mario Filho insisted again on the importance of football in Brazil as a means for social mobility for non-whites — and FOOTBALL TRIVIA even for poor whites. However, he failed to underline that this was only the case because society had Brazil’s first penalty shoot- in a closed other venues for social mobility, and because World Cup was in 1986 and resulted in rich whites were uninterested in the sport. a 4-3 victory to France.

MONGREL OR BRILLIANT MOLEQUE7? Nelson Falcão Rodrigues’ carreer and formation was shaped by his newspaper experience, always under the supervision of his elder brothers, emotional instability of the players. Sports journalists Milton and Mario Filho. He tried a hand at police promoted the idea that Brazilians lacked willpower, reporting, editorials and sports pages, starting at determination to fight and drive to win. Nelson agreed the newspaper Crítica, owned by his father, the with the connection made between the failure of 1950 journalist Mario Rodrigues, and then working at O and the emotional instability of Brazilian football Globo, owned by . But he was most players, but disagreed as to its causes: he lay the successful as a playwright, with plays as A Mulher blame on lack of national conscience, lack of conviction Sem Pecado [Woman Without Sin] (1943), Vestido of Brazilians true potential. He said “Each nation has de Noiva [Wedding Dress] (1943) and A Falecida a defining national catastrophe, something like a [The Deceased] (1953). His career in journalism was bombing. Our catastrophe, our Hiroshima, inseparable from his plays, in which he used an was losing to Uruguay in 1950” (Realidade, June 1966). innovative style of emphasizing popular speech. As Brazilians got to know themselves more, he claimed, and became able to identify their qualities and faults — Nelson’s right wing political views made him and overcome the latter —, they would attain success controversial and, because of this, he saw his in football and in other areas. Brazil would be able to football chronicles as his real paycheck. He wrote seek international recognition only as a nation with an for Manchete Esportiva between 1955 and 1959, and identity of its own. for O Globo between 1962 and 1978. Sporadically, he’d write for the Jornal dos Sports. His texts often Nelson stated that the Brazilian fan was an “Inside- included discussions about Brazilian national out Narcissus,” who spat on his own image. In his last identity. Nelson wrote systematically about the chronicle published before the opening of the 1958 meaning of football in Brazil, and how a whole World Cup, he arrived at his best definition of what nation could become identified with this game, to he considered to be at the root of all the pessimism the point of being “explained” by the sport: football that had been enhanced by the letdown of 1950 and was a paradigm of Brazilian people. its association to an undefined and inferior human type, resulting from racial integration: Brazilian In the years following the 1950 World Cup, the people suffered from an incurable “mongrel complex” loss to Uruguay in the final was attributed to the [“complexo de vira-lata”].

7 Moleque means originally a young boy; in certain regions of Brazil, a young boy who lives in the streets. Moleque is also used to someone who is street-smart, resourceful, irreverent, convincing, playful, mischievous. Many times it is a noun/adjective associated with the so-called “Brazilian way”.

FOOTBALL • 15 “ideal type” of Brazilian football player, whose best quality was, according to the chronicler, believing in himself. Because he was an extremely skilled FOOTBALL interracial player with crooked legs, Brazilians could feel proud to be who they were: “And, two and a half PLAYERS minutes into the game, we had the post twice and scored once on . Here, and across the country, – 1929 we started to suspect that it is good, and enjoyable, to be Brazilian.” (Manchete Esportiva, 06/21/1958) Position: right back Clubs: Portuguesa, Palmeiras, Atlético After Brazil defeated Sweden, and become the Word Paranaense Cup winner, Nelson became even more euphoric. Brazilian national team: 1952-1968 For him, Brazil and Brazilians were discovering and (98 games, 3 goals) accepting their virtues, both individual and collective.

Thanks to those 22 players, who formed the greatest (…) The pure, plain truth is this: any Brazilian player, football team of all time, thanks to these players, Brazil when freed from his inhibitions and in a state of discovered itself. (…) The result of 5-2, away from home, grace, is something unique in fantasy, improvisation, against all odds, was a marvelous and vital triumph for invention. To summarize: we have too many skills. Just each one of us. From the President to the waste paper one thing gets in the way and, at times, neutralizes collector, from the Chief Justice to the pauper, we all these qualities. What I’m talking about is what I might came to this conclusion — it’s good to be Brazilian! call our “mongrel complex.” No one is embarrassed by our national condition. (…) By “mongrel complex” I mean how Brazilians place The population no longer sees itself as a mongrel. themselves in a position of inferiority regarding the rest Yes, friends — Brazilians have a new self-image. They of the world. This happens in all areas and, above all, in identify themselves with the generous sum of their football. To say that we consider ourselves “the best” is a immense human and personal virtues. cynical lie. (…) In the already mentioned embarrassment of 1950, we were better than our adversaries. Besides See how everything has changed. Victory will affect that, we only needed a draw. So — we lost in the most all our interactions with the world. I ask — what were abject manner. And for a simple reason — because we? We were humble. And I say more — they said we Obdulio kicked us about, as if we were mongrels. were the result of three sad races. Since winning the World Cup, we began to think that our sadness was a I tell you — our national team’s problem is not football, bad joke. They also said we were ugly. What a lie! Or, technique, tactics. Not at all. It is a problem of faith. at least, victory made us beautiful. At the very least, we Brazilians need to believe they are not mongrels, and are ex-outcasts. (Manchete Esportiva, 07/12/1958) that they have football in excess, to display here, in Sweden. (Manchete Esportiva, 05/31/1958) Four years later, Brazil played at the 1962 World Cup final. For Nelson, this was a symbolic Brazil played well in the 1958 World Cup. As the battle between rosy Europeans and the ugly and tournament progressed, Garrincha became an crooked Brazilians, personified by Mané Garrincha.

16 • FOOTBALL Mané showed the world a “distinctive Brazilian identity”: (…) Brazilians are unlike anyone else, not even like a free, unpredictable, quick and creative playfulness, other South Americans. I repeat: Brazilians are a new a combination of ingenuity and shrewdness, which human experience. The Brazilian man enters history had already been associated with the national identity with a new, original, revolutionary and creative since the Modernist character of Macunaíma, defined component: the molecagem [playful irreverence]. This as “the hero without character” from the homonymous uniquely Brazilian playfulness is what gave victory an novel by Mario de Andrade8. This was again being seen inconceivable light. (Fatos & Fotos, ) in a positive light. The playful “moleque” was now the synthesis of the Brazilian identity. Nelson praised optimism and joy. The mongrel, the racially uncertain and ugly character, had proven to (…) might imitate our game but never our be capable, to possess the soul of a playful rascal human essence. and carry a “boundless and gratuitous joy” — a Conteúdo Expresso Football is a daily subject in Brazilian press.

8 The classic novel Macunaíma, by Mario de Andrade, portrays an anti-hero named Macunaíma, who is defined as “the hero without character”. Mario de Andrade, one of the pillars of Brazilian , wanted to criticize, in a comic way, the traits usually associated to the indigenous people of Brazil and the attraction that São Paulo — “the big city”, symbol of progress and industrialization — had upon Macunaíma.

FOOTBALL • 17 They promoted interracial identity. If, on the one FOOTBALL TRIVIA hand, they pointed to the shortcomings of mixed races in the development of a Brazilian identity, Zagallo has coached the Brazilian team most. on the other they also believed it was the only way A total of 126 games, with 90 wins, 26 draws Brazil would achieve prominence. Cordiality, for and 10 defeats. example, a trait emphasized by Sergio Buarque de Holanda, could be included among the defining traits of the socially mature Brazilian, so long as mixed and distilled with a certain dose of civility.

“moleque genial”. With these attributes, Brazil was In writing about football in mass media, and conquering the world, the chronicler assured us. targeting the football fan, they were able to translate He wanted to believe that, through its victories in and promote certain ideas about national identity football, Brazil was entering the group of the great that would otherwise be inaccessible to the general nations. With a defined and recognizable identity, public. Those ideas were incorporated into a way the country had reached some sort of international of thinking and reflecting on the relationship “citizenship.” between football and Brazil, or football and Brazilians, delivered in homeopathic doses, almost A PROJECT FOR THE BRAZILIAN NATION imperceptibly, through their daily chronicles. In tune Zé Lins, Mario and Nelson reflected on Brazilian with the feelings and desires of the society, they behavior during football games, or in situations tried to identify, name and purge collective fears and associated with football. They praised some traumas. Those views remain pertinent to this day, attitudes and rejected others. They defined criteria and help us understand certain types of behavior for belonging to an idealized nation. By doing so, and attitudes that are no longer questioned. in addition to reflecting on a national identity, one could say these football chronicles were engaged in Zé Lins, Mario and Nelson were not associated a project for the Brazilian nation, conceived as grand with universities. They belonged to a group of and victorious. This is what Brazilians felt in the intellectuals from Rio de Janeiro, which was at the glorious days of “the beautiful game,” when football time the cultural center and capital of the country. was synonymous with creativity, agility, craftiness They met and discussed in cafés, bookstores, and joy. stadiums, clubs and newspapers. In these places, they observed and discussed national issues. As a civilizing project, it was different from the They were close to the public, and were more European model, which had been based on a social prominent as opinion makers than most intellectuals contract, as proposed by Rousseau. Instead it associated with academia. They should not be sought to preserve the nature of Brazilian people dismissed for not being connected with institutional and keep it from repeating the mistakes of other knowledge. In their own way, and coming from a nations. Their discourse emphasized that Brazil different place, they generated interpretations of would find its own solutions to the country’s Brazil and brought to the attention of intellectuals problems, and thereby attain the status of an a series of social phenomena that would have gone autonomous nation. unnoticed, either because intellectuals belonged to

18 • FOOTBALL different social circles, or due to prejudice. Nelson was critical of “sociologists”, accusing them of having ready answers for all social phenomena and of being atrociously myopic when it came to manifestations of popular culture such as football. Zé Lins, predictably, was often censured by FOOTBALL conservative intellectuals for his involvement and participation in sports. PLAYERS

To know the roots, reveal the soul, portray – 1944 Brazil. Though not always in the forefront of their formulations, these were the tasks those Position: right back chroniclers set for themselves, consciously or Clubs: Santos, Fluminense, Flamengo, unconsciously, when they wrote about football. Cosmos () They wanted to discover Brazil, to reveal the Brazilian national team: 1964-1977 workings of its social organism, so as to discover (53 games, 8 goals) the origins of its ailments and propose solutions. They wanted to propel the country forward on a new and unique path, without copying a European or American model, and, most important, without replicating their errors.

Fatima Martin Rodrigues Ferreira Antunes. Bachelor of Social Sciences (1986) by the Department of Philosophy, Literature and Human Sciences of the University of São Paulo; Masters (1992) and PhD (1992) in sociology from the same university. She works as a sociologist for the Department of Historical Heritage of the Ministry of Culture of the City of São Paulo.

Bibliographic references

• ANTUNES, Fatima M. R. F. Com brasileiro, não há quem possa!: Futebol • FREYRE, Gilberto. Prefácio à primeira edição (1947). In: RODRIGUES e identidade nacional em José Lins do Rego, Mario Filho e Nelson FILHO, Mario. O Negro no Futebol Brasileiro. 2ª ed. Rio de Janeiro: Rodrigues. São Paulo: Editora UNESP, 2004. Civilização Brasileira, 1964. • ANDRADE, Mario de. Macunaíma. O herói sem nenhum caráter. São • HOLANDA, Sergio Buarque de. Raízes do Brasil. 26ª ed. São Paulo: Paulo: Círculo do Livro, s.d. , 1995. • CASTRO, Ruy. O anjo pornográfico: A vida de Nelson Rodrigues. São • PRADO, Paulo. Retrato do Brasil: Ensaio sobre a tristeza brasileira. 8ª ed. Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1992. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1997. • COUTINHO, Edilberto. José Lins do Rego, futebol e vida: a emoção flamengo. • REGO, José Lins do. Fôlego e classe. In: Poesia e Vida. Rio de Janeiro: In: BEZERRA, Angela & COUTINHO, Edilberto (orgs.). José Lins do Rego: Universal, 1945. Fortuna crítica. Rio de Janeiro/João Pessoa: Civilização Brasileira/Ed.FUNESC, • RIBEIRO, André. O diamante eterno: Biografia de Leônidas da Silva. Rio 1991. de Janeiro: Gryphus, 1999. • FREYRE, Gilberto. Foot-ball Mulato. In: Diário de Pernambuco, 17.6.1938. • RODRIGUES, Nelson. A pátria em chuteiras: novas crônicas de futebol. • FREYRE, Gilberto. Casa-grande & senzala. 20ª ed. Rio de Janeiro: José São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1994. Olympio, 1950. • RODRIGUES FILHO, Mario. O Negro no Futebol Brasileiro. 2ª ed. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 1964.

FOOTBALL • 19 Maracanã: temple of football

By Pedro de Castro da Cunha e Menezes

Every Sunday morning, the same routine is repeated in thousands of homes in Rio de Janeiro. Coffee, milk, bread and butter divide the fan’s attention with the sports section of some major morning newspaper. Avid and anxious eyes scan the newspaper in search for starters on the favored team. The 11 men to play later in the day are idealized as heroes about to fight a bloody battle. Almost as important are those on the bench, who might be called at any moment. How will the coach set up the offense, what strategy will be used on defense, and how will the midfield play? Everything interests the fan, also worried about the opponent’s strong and weak features.

20 • FOOTBALL Conteúdo Expresso This will be the stage for the 2014 World Cup final.

Once breakfast is finished, it is time to call upon cry is heard, and nearby groups sings in unison the friends, to set up place and time to meet. The rest team’s anthem. The scene is set, the party is about to of the morning is spent on the beach, debating the start, excitement abounds. details of the ensuing confrontation. Normally there is no proper lunch, just a quick shower and a snack. It This is the prelude to the largest adoration ceremony is imperative to arrive early at the stadium, to choose on the planet: the Brazilian fan’s love for his or a good place and guarantee one’s comfort. From her football team. It is a generous and gratuitous 3:00 PM on, the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro breaths veneration, happy in victory, condescending in dull football. A procession of buses transporting fans draws, but above all united and unshakable in the arrives from distant parts of town, subway cars unload misery of defeat. The connection between Brazilians hoards of loyal fans at Maracanã station. The metallic and their football clubs is a marriage without sound of hand-held radios propagates to the four divorce, because love for a football club is unique winds that spectacle is about to begin. On the street, and eternal. The union between fan and club is not on the way to the stadium, some seek protection by dissolvable, until death do them apart. making the sign of the cross, while others carry their team flags towards the beloved stadium. Close by, This devotion has its cathedral. Its official name is fireworks go off, while in the distance a (peaceful) war Mario Filho Stadium, in honor of the journalist who

FOOTBALL • 21 fought for its construction, or simply Maracanã, host the South American Football Championship which is also the name of the neighborhood where in 1919, but it had no stadium nor the money to it is located and the stream that runs in front of build it. But no miracle was required to solve it. Built for the 1950 World Cup, it could not have the problem. Fluminense Football Club, and its been a small stadium, or even a medium sized president at the time, the very wealthy Arnaldo stadium, because it needed to have enough space to Guinle, offered to build the biggest sporting venue invite the largest legion of fans in the world. Some in Brazil, with a capacity for 18,000 fans. Guinle heedlessly tried to reduce it. Speaking in the House raised money among clubs members, and in less of Representatives of the Federal Government in than a year the concrete stands were ready in 1947, the powerful politician Carlos Lacerda1 spoke Laranjeiras neighborhood. The Laranjeiras stadium vehemently against it, comparing it to a white is now considered a Brazilian architectural and elephant. For Lacerda, building a stadium that could cultural landmark. A few years later, in 1926, sit 80,000 people was a tropical delirium, a waste of History repeated itself. Vasco da Gama was public money. He predicted that after the World Cup, prohibited from playing the first national football the stadium would remain empty.

Lacerda used to underline that, next to the proposed Maracanã construction site, there was an unbuilt clinic: “It is shameful to build a football stadium adjacent to a hospital which has not been built.”

Lacerda forgot that love is stronger than reason. Perhaps because of this lack of understanding, he was never successful in his quest to become President of the Republic, despite his continued efforts. To paraphrase the samba song, he must have had a bad head or feeble feet. His crusade began to end when the journalist Mario Filho decided to come into the fight: “The more football stadiums we have, the less hospitals we will need.”

Mario Filho owned the Jornal dos Sports, and dreamed of seeing a “flight of white handkerchiefs in the stadium, as doves taking flight.” Unlike the politician, the journalist knew his public. He knew the power of football. He remembered days gone, when football had overcome the economic reality and succeeded beyond all expectations. In 1918, Brazil was trapped in a 22. It had offered to In the days before its renovation, the stadium could accommodate up to 200,000 spectators.

1 Carlos Frederico Werneck de Lacerda (1914-1977) was a journalist, writer and politician. He was a congressman and, later, Governor of the state of Guanabara (nowadays, Rio de Janeiro). He founded the newspaper Tribuna da Imprensa and the famous editing house Nova Fronteira.

22 • FOOTBALL league unless it had its own stadium. The club’s fans considered the prohibition an apostasy. They put their hands in their pockets and gave whatever money they could. The sum was enough to buy FOOTBALL 6,000 barrels of cement and 252 tons of iron – with which, in 10 months, São Januário stadium was PLAYERS built, becoming the largest football stadium of its time, with a capacity of 40,000 seats. Leandro – 1959

Above all, Mario Filho knew that the sum of the Position: right back parts was larger than the whole. He wasn’t just Clubs: Flamengo fighting to build the stage for the 1950 World Cup, Brazilian national team: 1981-1986 but also to build the most imposing football temple (27 games, 2 goals) in the world. He based his belief on the fact that

Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil at the time, was the only city on the planet to have four large football clubs, each one being able on its own to fill the stands that had been projected to receive over 170,000 people.

He was right. Maracanã, in its 60 years, was never the white elephant predicted by . Up until 1999, when a renovation reduced its capacity to 103,000 fans, the stadium had on 197 occasions exceeded 100,000 spectators. That is an average of almost four times a year. Of these, only 37 games involved the Brazilian national team or two teams that were not from Rio de Janeiro. In reality, the four largest clubs from Rio de Janeiro, with Maracanã as their stage, are the local clubs that have most often played to over 100,000 spectators in the world. For Flamengo, it happened 105 times; for Vasco, 63; for Fluminense, 58 and for Botafogo, 43. After that comes Corinthians, a team from São Paulo with the second largest fan base in the

Conteúdo Expresso country, that played 23 times in a stadium with In the days before its renovation, the stadium could accommodate up to 200,000 spectators. more than 100,000 spectators.

FOOTBALL • 23 Conteúdo Expresso Fluminense supporters used to celebrate goals throwing powder in the air.

One should not think that Maracanã is a temple that In 1963, a similar story happened. For the discriminates. On the contrary, it is an ecumenical final of Libertadores da América Cup, Santos cathedral. Among the 23 games that Corinthians chose Maracanã as its home field, and beat 3-2 played with over 100,000 fans, three were at Argentine , later winning the South Maracanã – two against Fluminense and one against American title in a second game in . Vasco. But that is not all. When Santos came to play against in the 1963 Club World Cup final, however, things got It is not an exaggeration to say that, although located trickier. The Brazilian team lost its first game in Rio de Janeiro, Maracanã belongs to every Brazilian. in (Milan stadium) by 4-2. For the When Pelé’s Santos reached the Club World Cup final, return game, Santos again chose to leave São in 1962, against the Portuguese club Benfica, it chose Paulo and play at Maracanã. The team traveled to play at Mario Filho instead of at its own stadium approximately 500 km to Rio de Janeiro, and once (Vila Belmiro Stadium), or even at Pacaembu, located again, was successful. On the night of November at São Paulo, capital of its own state. Santos believed 14th, date of the return game, the city was struck that Maracanã was home of all Brazilian teams. It by heavy rains. 132,000 fans were unfazed and won by 3-2 with two goals from Pelé and one from made their way to the stadium to support the São Coutinho. The second game, in , saw a new Paulo team. According to the players themselves, Santos victory, this time by 5-2, guaranteeing the title. fans were fundamental. Santos was down 2-0,

24 • FOOTBALL when fans began singing non-stop and pushed the team forward. Santos ended up winning the game by 4-2, thereby drawing the score of goals and forcing a deciding game two days later. Santos FOOTBALL again decided to play in Rio de Janeiro. In truth, the players barely left the stadium. They slept in PLAYERS a small hotel that existed at the time on the fifth floor of Maracanã stadium. This time 121,000 fans – 1970 came to cheer on the club, that was now the team of all Brazilians. It worked. Their shouts and songs Position: right back helped Santos win the Club World Cup title a Clubs: Palmeiras, São Paulo, Roma, second time, defeating Milan by 1-0. (Italy), Milan (Italy) Brazilian national team: 1990-2006 There is no shortage of world finals at Maracanã. (142 games, 5 goals) Starting with the 1950 World Cup, for which the stadium was built, when 199,854 people were squeezed in the stands to cheer on Brazil towards players as the first world club championship in its much desired first World Cup victory, in the history. The following teams participated in the decisive game against Uruguay. The Brazilian team first tournament in 1951: could afford to draw. It scored first, sending the (France), Red Star (Yugoslavia), Juventus (Italy), fans into delirium, but then became a victim of its Nacional (Uruguay), (Austria), own arrogance. The Uruguayan team withstood Sporting (), Vasco da Gama (Brazil) and the euphoric chanting of an inebriated crowd that Palmeiras (Brazil). The final, played on July 22nd, already believed Brazil would be the new world didn’t include any clubs from Rio de Janeiro. Even champion. They scored a draw, with a goal by so, 101,000 spectators went to watch Palmeiras raise Schiaffino. And continued fighting. It was David the trophy. against Goliath. Towards the end of the match, Giggia would knock down the giant and silence The following year, the -official world 200,000 Brazilians: 2-1 Uruguay. championship took place again. This time, a Rio de Janeiro team was crowned best in the world. On the The deep depression that took hold of the loyal year of its 50th anniversary, Fluminense, without Brazilian fans would soon be dissipated. Still in suffering a single defeat, won the trophy. The player 1950, Mario Filho conceived the . With Telê Santana, who would later become coach of FIFA’s support, which provided referees and sent its the 1982 and 1986 World Cup teams, stated that it vice-president as its representative, was the most important accomplishment of his life: the Brazilian Football Confederation organized the “The Taça Rio brought together the best teams on first large intercontinental football tournament. As the planet, it was a world club championship. Every there were neither the da América game was a battle, a real World Cup atmosphere. nor the Champions League at time, the decision When Fluminense played Peñarol no one believed was made to invite the leading clubs of the most we could win. After all, they had seven players important national championships. For this reason, from the Uruguayan national team that had won the tournament was treated by media, public and the World Cup. But we were not intimidated; we

FOOTBALL • 25 each group, Corinthians and Vasco played in Maracanã on January 14th. After 90 minutes the score remained 0-0, and even extra time did not FOOTBALL change the result, forcing a decision by penalties, PLAYERS won by Corinthians (4-3).

This was not the first Corinthian celebration at Nilton Santos – 1925 Mario Filho stadium. In 1976, they had reached the semifinal of the Brazilian championship against Position: left back Fluminense. Unlike other stadiums in the world, Clubs: Botafogo Maracanã is not home field to any specific club, Brazilian national team: 1949-1962 but a football sanctuary. Approximately 40,000 (75 games, 3 goals) Corinthians fans, who traveled 400 km to cheer their team, found a warm welcome. The previous day, hundreds of buses and cars with São Paulo licenses were parked around the stadium. On the day of the charged forward, we wanted to revenge Brazil’s game, December 5th, a rain of biblical proportions loss (in the World Cup). The tactical scheme set flooded the streets of Rio, but that did not stop up by Zezé Moreira (Fluminense’s coach) worked 146,043 fans from transforming Maracanã into like a Swiss watch and the Uruguayans could not their own Noah’s Ark. Football, in the strict sense, keep up. We won easily. Victory never tasted so was not played that day. The ball did not roll, the sweet.” Fluminense won after a 2-2 draw and a 2-0 players slipped and sunk in the mud. The game was win over Corinthians at Maracanã, and celebrated transformed into a parody of , nothing with an unforgettable party, enveloped in a cloud happened for 90 minutes and it had to be decided by of rice powder, the Fluminense fans’ unique way of penalties. And as happened against Vasco in 2000, celebrating. Corinthians was implacable, winning by 4-1. Their organized group of fans, known as the Fiel [the loyal Nearly 50 years later, the largest football temple ones], went into a state of delirium, celebrating so would provide the opportunity for Corinthians to loudly that, some say, they could be heard in São feel its magic and grace. In 2000, FIFA held its first Paulo, almost 500 km away. official Club World Cup championship in Maracanã, organized very much alike Copa Rio. This time, all More deafening than the Corinthian celebration, continental football federations already had their however, was the silence of the Flamengo fans in own tournaments, which made it easier to pick the 1984: a frozen apathy that was only matched by representatives from different parts of the globe. Brazil’s loss in 1950. The pain was not measured by The first phase of the championship was played the importance of the tournament, because after in two cities. In São Paulo played Corinthians, all this was only the Rio de Janeiro championship, Real (Spain), Al Nassr () but by the inexplicability of the event, which some and Raja Casablanca (Morocco). In Rio de ascribed to divine intervention. It was a “Fla-Flu” Janeiro played Vasco da Gama, Necaxa (), [Flamengo versus Fluminense] that would decide Manchester United (England) and South Melbourne the title. Fluminense needed to win at all costs, (Australia). In the final between the winners of otherwise it would be eliminated. Flamengo needed

26 • FOOTBALL only a draw. Before the game, a “sign” had brought to mention those who had already left the stadium. hope to the Fluminense fans and dispirited the At that moment, suddenly like a miracle, the flamenguistas. Flamengo fans had let loose an referee blew the whistle, marking an offside against urubu, the bird that is the club’s symbol, with loud Flamengo. The ball was quickly put back in play by screams to cheer it on. The bird flew around the , who made a long and precise pass to Assis, stadium a few times until, apparently disoriented, who appeared out of nowhere to control it and, landed on the field. Aldo, Fluminense’s right back, ignoring the Flamengo goalkeeper, placed the ball slowly and silently crept up behind the bird and... smoothly at the back of the net. What happened next zapt! With a jump, he grabbed the bird and put it in a is reminiscent of a Hollywood comedy, as seen in a bag. The game could now start. Brazilian theater: as soon as the joke is told, those who understand English break into a laugh, while Even though Flamengo had a strong team, which the others remain silent until the subtitles are shown included Leandro, Mozer, Junior, Andrade, and on screen. Adílio, among others, it decided to play for the draw, slowing down the game and repeatedly committing That is what happened at Mario Filho Stadium. Half fouls. It almost worked: on the 90th minute the game of the fans jumped, screaming of joy, releasing was still 0-0 and, at that moment, Flamengo had emotions that had been repressed for 90 minutes. control of the ball and moved to the opposing team’s The other half stood silent, confused, still waiting half of the pitch. Fluminense fans were silent – not for an explanation. The referee, Arnaldo César Conteúdo Expresso Pelé could not have asked for a better stage for his 1,000th goal.

FOOTBALL • 27 on the first half, Pelé received a pass near Santos’s goalport. He looked up and, instead of passing the ball, ran towards the opponent’s goal: he squeezed FOOTBALL himself between Valdo and Edmilson, duped Clóvis, avoided Altair, fooled Pinheiro, dribbled PLAYERS and, suddenly, there he was, in the vicinity of Fluminense’s goal. With a skillful touch he beat the Júnior – 1954 goalkeeper Castilho, scoring the goal that, according to all who saw it, was the most beautiful goal in Position: left back the history of football. On that play, Pelé overcame Clubs: Flamengo, Torino (Italy), seven Fluminense players. A bronze plaque was Pescara (Italy) placed at the entrance hall of Maracanã stadium to Brazilian national team: 1979-1992 honor that goal, and gave origin to the expression (70 games, 6 goals) “gol de placa” [plaque goal], which since then is used to describe an exceptionally beautiful goal. According to Mario Filho, the reaction to the goal was a demonstration of devotion to football, almost Coelho, pointed to the midfield, walked towards as impressive as the goal itself: the goal, picked up the ball, put it under his arm and whistled, gesturing that the game had ended. Something unheard of happened. The crowd didn’t get Fluminense had scored its goal, not at the last up. People continued seated, but broke out clapping. minute, not even at the last second, but at the There was not a single spectator who didn’t clap. It was smallest fraction of time imaginable. While the ball an ovation of the theatrical type. The clapping didn’t was over the line of the goal the game was still stop, it only grew louder. People clapped looking at going; at the exact moment it rolled over the line the field, at Pelé. Pelé heard and looked back at the the game was over. Never, before or after, in all stands of Maracanã. He raised his hands and waved the history of Maracanã, did the Gods-of-the-Last- back, in appreciation. He was hugged by Coutinho, Minute-Goal intervene with such precision. , Pepe, Dorval, and the clapping continued...

Fluminense fans left the stadium singing and The clapping only stopped when Valdo started the dancing, deservedly so. Meanwhile, the 40,000 game again. But it would soon start up again, because Flamengo fans remained glued to the stands, the first half had ended. The difference now was that waiting for someone to explain what had happened. the crowd was on its feet applauding. Pelé walked off If it was a Hollywood comedy, it would have the field and into the tunnel, and the noise continued. been an anecdote derived from some idiomatic Everyone wanted to share that moment. Groups were expression. Untranslatable. But this was not the formed. Strangers became friends thanks to Pelé’s movies, it was real life. miracle goal.

God appeared to have inspired a player on This same stadium also provided the stage for Maracanã’s sacred field some other times. On March the King of Football to score his thousandth goal 5th, 1961, Santos and Fluminense were playing. It was on November 19th, 1969. It is not everyday that a a tepid and uninteresting game until, at 40 minutes football player scores goal number 1,000. Pelé’s

28 • FOOTBALL goal could have happened earlier, but perhaps the important national competition until the Torneio King was waiting to reach that mark at the world’s Robert Gomes Pedrosa, precursor to modern greatest football temple. On November 12th, he Brazilian Championship, was created in 1967. scored goals number 997 and 998, as Santos beat Santa Cruz, in Recife. On the 14th, in João Pessoa, Still in that decade, Maracanã provided the he scored number 999 against the local Botafogo scenario to punish the arrogance of two great team. According to the press, the game was too teams, much as it had happened to Brazil in the easy. Pelé could have scored another goal and 1950 World Cup final. On December 18th, 1960, reached the mark right there, but he did not. On in front of 100,000 fans, Fluminense reached the the 16th, against , in Salvador, he played a final of the Rio championship, needing only a discreet game, as if he was holding back. Finally, draw against América. Fluminense lead by 1-0, in the game against Vasco da Gama, on the 19th, and had even lost a penalty, taken by Pinheiro. on the 34th minute of the second half, the referee Their superiority was so overwhelming that called a penalty against the team from Rio de they relaxed. While the fans were prematurely Janeiro. The public began calling for Pelé to take celebrating, América scored two goals, winning the kick. The King preferred not to score goal 1,000 the last Rio championship in its history. In 1966, from a penalty kick, but there were only 10 minutes something similar happened. The unpretentious left of the game and Pelé wanted to be anointed Bangu, from a distant borough, reached the final in Maracanã. So he took the penalty, and GOAL. against the heavily favored Flamengo, who had History was made. won the previous year’s championship and already considered itself the year’s winner. Calmly, 143,978 Much like Pelé’s Santos, another team, this Flamengo fans filled Maracanã on December 18th, one from Rio de Janeiro, enchanted the fans at expecting to celebrate the title it would not win. Maracanã during the : Botafogo de Futebol In Mario Filho Stadium there are no bets; e Regatas. The black-and-white team had the only football is sacred, and those who treat it brilliance of Garrincha and his crooked legs, with greater devotion and loyalty are generally the impeccable technique of Nilton Santos, the rewarded. In the end, Bangu defeated Flamengo elegance of Didi, the precise passes of Gérson, and its arrogance by 3-0, an took the trophy to the and the furious runs of . Their plays faraway borough. looked like a beautifully choreographed dance, in which each move had been carefully rehearsed and practiced. The team bewitched millions of Brazilians who never even saw them on the field. These were times when television did not FOOTBALL TRIVIA reach many households, but the Rádio Nacional [National Radio] transmitted the games live. In those radio times, there was no greater hit than Pelé is the greatest striker in the history of the narrative of Botafogo games. The team won the Brazilian clubs, having scored 1,091 goals for Rio de Janeiro championship five times during that Santos. scored 617 goals period (1961, 1962, 1967, 1968 and 1969), besides for Vasco da Gama and Zico scored 502 while winning the Taça Brasil in 1968 and three Rio-São playing for Flamengo. Paulo tournaments. Rio-São Paulo was the most

FOOTBALL • 29 inch to either left or right, or to witness the perfect dribbles by and Edinho. FOOTBALL TRIVIA Flamengo at this time was an equally powerful The win by the highest margin in a Brazilian team, and above all, a winner. It played like a finely Championship was the 10-1 victory by Corinthians tuned orchestra, conducted by Arthur Antunes over Tiradentes, in Piauí. But the greatest goal Coimbra, a.k.a. “Zico”, a complete player who differential ever in Brazil was 24-0 by Botafogo attacked, defended, marked, headed, kicked fouls over Mangueira, during the Copa Rio in 1909. and penalties, scored goals and exerted a unifying leadership among the players. He symbolized the team to such an extent that this period in Flamengo’s history became known as the “Zico Era,” During the and 1980s, Flamengo and in honor of the nickname that became known all Fluminense redeemed themselves and shone at over the world. In 1981, after a brilliant campaign Maracanã. In those two decades, the two teams in the Taça Libertadores, the team won the Club won 15 Rio and 6 Brazilian championships. World Cup championship in Tokyo – far from Gávea, Fluminense’s game appeared to be flawless. It their home field – but close as always to the hearts didn’t just seek titles, but also art, beauty, and the of the largest fan base in Brazil. Fans always filled essence of football. In 1975 and 1976, the team Maracanã whenever Flamengo was playing, and referred to as “The Machine” was so powerful during the “Zico Era” were responsible for 6 out of that all 11 players (and some of the reserves too) the 12 games with greatest attendance in the history had at some moment in their career played for of the Brazilian Championship. the national team, including four who had been in the 1970 World Cup: Renato (Félix), Carlos Still in the 1970s, the national team finally Alberto Torres, Miguel, Edinho and Rodrigues made peace with the world’s greatest football Neto; , Paulo Cezar e , Gil, Doval temple and redeemed itself from the defeat in and Dirceu. The team was so good that the war the 1950 World Cup. In 1972, to celebrate 150 chant of the fans was: “It’s unfair, it’s unfair, years of independence, the Brazilian government when Rivellino, Paulo César and Co. are here...” organized the Taça Independência [Independence Although its reign was shorter than Pelé’s Santos Tournament]. Given the quality and number of the or Garrincha’s Botafogo, this Fluminense team was national teams invited, this was almost a World among the best to perform the liturgy of football Cup. Twenty national teams participated: Brazil, at Maracanã. Winning was merely a consequence; Portugal, , Yugoslavia, , the important thing, the objective, was to play Uruguay, France, Czechoslovakia, Ireland, the beautiful game, to roll the ball softly, to fill , , , , Bolivia, , the eyes and soften the hardest hearts with the , , Iran, an Africa team and subtlety of the plays. The fans responded by a Concacaf (Confederation of North, Central filling Maracanã in order to see Rivellino’s picture- American and Caribbean ) perfect passes from the midfield, smooth ball team. The final, of course, was played at Mario control by Gil, give-and-go between Paulo César Filho Stadium. This time Brazil did not dishonor and Pintinho, as the ball rolled precisely on football: it played with passion, with no arrogance the dividing lines of the field, without straying an and without assuming it would win. It was a tough

30 • FOOTBALL game, and Brazil ended up defeating Portugal 1-0 with a goal by Jairzinho in the last minute, thus winning a title at Maracanã and paying a 22-year- old debt to Brazilian fans. FOOTBALL

In the 1980s, in one of the few years when PLAYERS Flamengo and Fluminense allowed other teams to shine, Maracanã saw one of the most beautiful – 1973 contests in its history. On July 31st, 1985, Bangu and Coritiba played the final of the Brazilian Position: left back Championship. Neither team had many supporters Clubs: Atlético , Palmeiras, in Rio de Janeiro. Coritiba’s home city is almost Internazionale, Real Madrid (Spain), 1,000 kilometers from Rio de Janeiro, and Bangu Fenerbahçe (), Corinthians is a traditional local team with a small fan base. Brazilian national team: 1992-2006 Even so, 91,000 spectators honored the ceremony (125 games, 11 goals) and, with an almost religious fervor, flocked to the stadium to watch what Maracanã does best: display the world’s most talented football. At the Conteúdo Expresso Matches between Vasco and Flamengo were responsible for some of the highest attendances in Maracanã’s history.

FOOTBALL • 31 end, after a 1-1 draw during normal and extra time, a Copa Libertadores da América. It was a period Coritiba became champion after defeating Bangu when Vasco had great teams and great players, 6-5 in penalties, and was cheered as it left the including , , stadium by fans who would go home satisfied with Felipe and Roberto Dinamite — who later became the spectacle they had witnessed. Vasco’s President, and who retired in 1993 as the greatest scorer in Vasco’s history, with 703 goals. Also in the 1980s, Botafogo won the 1989 Rio During that decade, two other local teams won Championship, ending a 21-year title drought. In the the Brazilian Championship: Flamengo in 1992, same year, Vasco became Brazilian Champion, sort and Botafogo in 1995. The last time Maracanã had of anticipating which club would dominate the next an over 100,000 fans attendance was in 1999, for decade. Brazil would also win the Copa América, on Brazilian Championship’s final, when Botafogo July 16th that year, after beating Uruguay 1-0 in front and Juventude tied at 0-0 (101,581 people were of 132,743 spectators. present at that game). Subsequent renovation reduced the stadium’s capacity to the current In the 1990s, Vasco reigned at Maracanã. 82,238 spectators. Although, officially, its home field was São Januário Stadium, all the important games played In the 2000s, besides the Club World Cup by the team were at Mario Filho Stadium, because championship, won by Corinthians, Maracanã its fan base was much bigger than the 40,000 limit also was home to the final of the 2000 Brazilian of its official home field. During that period, Vasco Championship, when Vasco ended the cycle begun fans had the privilege of watching their team in 1989 and, once more, became national champion. raise the Rio trophy four times, win a Rio-São Still in 2000, to celebrate the stadium’s 50th Paulo tournament, a Brazilian Championship and anniversary, the Calçada da Fama [Sidewalk of Fame] was inaugurated, displaying the imprint of great players’s feet. Among the players who made history at Mario Filho Stadium are: Pelé, Zico (leading scorer at Maracanã, with 333 goals), Jairzinho, Roberto Dinamite, Rivellino, Zagallo, Beckenbauer and FOOTBALL Giggia, the executioner of Brazil’s hopes in 1950. PLAYERS Since 2006 Maracanã hosts the Museu do Futebol [Football Museum], which focuses on the history of Domingos da Guia the stadium, Rio de Janeiro football, and the history 1912 - 2000 of the Brazilian national team.

Position: full-back Mario Filho Stadium was closed for renovation Clubs: Bangu, Vasco, Nacional, in 2005 and 2006. In 2007, it hosted the finals of (Uruguay), Boca Juniors (Argentina), the . Ecuador won the gold Flamengo, Corinthians medal in men’s football. After defeating United Brazilian national team: 1931-1946 States 5-0, Brazil won women’s final. In 2008, (26 games) Maracanã was covered in rice powder again, when 80,000 fans filled the stadium to see Fluminense defeat LDU from in the final of the Taça

32 • FOOTBALL Libertadores da América, by 3-1. This score forced a penalty shootout (LDU had won by 4-2 in Ecuador), and LDU left the stadium as the new South American champion.

The last decade, when Maracanã hosted the FOOTBALL Brazilian Championship final, ended in a similar PLAYERS fashion. On December 6th, 2009, Flamengo defeated Grêmio from by 2-1 and won its sixth national title, a record only São Paulo matched. Bellini – 1930 In the same year, Fluminense, who had dropped to B and C leagues during the 1990s, had a 98% Position: full-back probability of being sent back to lower leagues Clubs: Vasco, São Paulo, Atlético again. It didn’t happen. The player Fred, leader Paranaense of the spectacular recovery that kept Fluminense Brazilian national team: 1957-1966 among Brazilian football elite, said that Maracanã (51 games) played a fundamental role. The team began to react when fans held a sign on the stands that read “fight to the end.” According to the athlete, from then on Fluminense fans, with their chanting, their flags and their signs propelled them forward. Maracanã, when full, can even transform a mediocre team into a on one’s team is good but, as says Nelson powerful squad. Rodrigues, the greatest Brazilian playwright and a frequent Maracanã fan, “it is prudent to wear In 2010, Mario Filho Stadium was closed once the sandals of humility” and focus on playing at more for renovations, this time to prepare it for a high level, without arrogantly assuming victory the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 . before the final whistle blows – after all, Mario This will be the second time that it will host Filho Stadium does not often forgive arrogance. a World Cup final, and Brazilian fans ardently When the ball rolls on its field, normally it is the hope the home team will win this time. To cheer best team who wins.

Pedro Cunha e Menezes was born in 1964 in Rio de Janeiro. He has been going to Maracanã since he was a young kid, and is a great Fluminense fan. He is the author of a dozen books about Rio de Janeiro, including Fluminense Football Club, 100 Anos de Glória [Fluminense Football Club, 100 Years of Glory].

FOOTBALL • 33 Brazil’s greatest World Cup rivals

By Mário Araújo

After the nineteenth FIFA World Cup (2010), the Brazilian national team, the only one to have been present in all previous tournaments, has played 97 matches, with 67 wins, 15 draws and the same number of defeats. For eight decades it has challenged rivals from all parts of the planet, above all from Europe, the continent where the sport was born and home to most of the participating teams. It is also the place where the world’s most talented players can actually be found working, due to European efficiency in administering the football business. In spite of this favorable record, the truth is that a good number of other teams have been able to challenge Brazil, exhibiting football of the highest level and alternating victories and losses in their battles with the Brazilian team – thereby providing some of the most memorable moments in World Cup history.

34 • FOOTBALL Some national teams, such as Italy, have displayed their strength from early on; others, such as Hungary, initially enchanted spectators then slipped into a phase of decadence; others still, such as Holland, revealed their strength only in recent years, breathing new life into the great spectacle, started in 1930, that is the World Cup.

BRAZIL VS. FRANCE. THE “BLEUS” TURN THE GAME AROUND. Until the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, the history of matches between Brazil and France had been limited to a single game, when Brazil soundly defeated France by a score of 5-2 during the semifinal of the first World Cup won by Brazil (1958). In the years that followed, Brazil consolidated its position as a football power, while France’s participation in World Cups was negligible. It was therefore natural to assume that Brazil would have an easy time beating France. Even a dramatic loss in penalty kicks, in 1986, which eliminated Brazil from the World Cup in Mexico, was not enough to raise the opponent to the status of great rival. After all, Platini and his companions would soon retire, and France would again revert to being a mediocre team, while Brazil had exceptional talents born every minute, including Romário and , ready to be called. In fact, the “Bleus” did not even qualify to the two following World Cups (1990 and 1994), proving they were far from being able to threaten the supremacy of the four giants in world football: Brazil, Italy, Germany and Argentina.

But in 1998, the year France returned to the World Cup, both teams met again. In the final match, no less. Brazilian fans, remembering France’s previous performances, did not appear too worried with the Gaul campaign of five victories and one draw that had taken them to the final. On the eve of the semifinal game against Holland, the general feeling was that if Brazil won that game the title was almost

certain. However, what happened in the final match, Conteúdo Expresso not to mention the mysterious incidents that took Sócrates was one of the Brazilian aces in the encounter with the French in 1986.

FOOTBALL • 35 place before1 , was France’s absolute superiority and World Cup in Germany. Although its performance an indisputable 3-0 win. The crisis which Ronaldo during the first four games had not matched supposedly suffered before the game and Brazilian expectations, one hoped for at least an honest players’ apathy on the pitch perhaps may never be exhibition against France in the quarterfinals. By explained, but the fact is that France, with Zidane, honest I mean a showcase of dedication, fighting Henry, Vieira and Blanc, capitalized on Brazil’s spirit and the usual offense-oriented football. The mistakes. Furthermore, it established one of the expectation was that Gaúcho, at that greatest classic rivalries in World Cups. time the best player in the world, would finally display all his skills on the German fields – and Brazil, winner in 2002, had been displaying great outshine the French star Zidane, as had occurred form in the following years, thanks to a new in their previous encounters at club level, when generation of skillful players, including Kaká, and Real Madrid had played. At the end Adriano and . It was considered (and of 90 minutes, however, France was through to the considered itself) the great favorite to win the 2006 semifinals of the World Cup, following an impeccable Conteúdo Expresso Two finals against Italy and two Brazilian victories. In this picture, the stage is a crowded Azteca Stadium.

1 Ronaldo, Brazil’s most notable player, allegedly suffered a medical emergency minutes before the beginning of the final. What really happened that day remains to be explained, and the versions about it are many.

36 • FOOTBALL performance of Zidane and Brazil’s exhibit of one of the most dismal performances ever shown by any national team. Apathy reigned from beginning to end, and this time there was no excuse of Ronaldo FOOTBALL being sick. Every Brazilian player seemed to feel PLAYERS sick, not before, but during the game. The modest 1-0 result does not do justice to France’s dominance. This was the result of another World Cup marked by Zózimo – 1932-1977 cautious defensive schemes. Position: full-back Over the last 50 years, the Brazilian national Clubs: Bangu, Flamengo, Portuguesa team has gone from absolute superiority in direct Brazilian national team: 1955-1962 confrontation with the “Bleus” to the uncomfortable (35 games, 1 goal) position of being, to use a Brazilian football term, freguês de caderno2 of our rivals.

BRAZIL VS. ITALY. HIGH LEVEL BALANCE. organization and knowledge of how to employ the The rivalry between Brazil and Italy goes back much existing talent, Brazilian football would be able not further. Aside from the fact that both countries, only to compete with the best European schools, but today, have tallied the greatest number of World Cup also offer something unique in creativity and beauty. championships3 , direct confrontation between these teams have made for some of the most exciting Thirty two years later, after Brazil had won two battles in World Cup history, either because of the consecutive world cups and had players who always decisive nature of the games, or because of deserve to be included in any list of the world’s best the actions on the field. (Carlos Alberto, Gérson, Tostão and Rivellino) – not to mention Pelé –, the two great rivals met again in As early as 1938, the “Squadra Azzurra”4 already grand circumstances. At the 1970 World Cup final sent home the first Brazilian national team worthy of in Mexico, each country had already won two world attention, which had shown the world a particularly championships. Adding to that, the Jules Rimet creative and talented way of practicing the sport trophy would be retired, allowing the winner to keep developed by the British. That national team, which it forever. This was the ending of a championship still used white shirts, instead of the customary defined by great confrontations, including Brazil yellow, included in its roster one of the first great vs. Uruguay, Italy vs. Germany, Brazil vs. England, Brazilian football geniuses: Leônidas da Silva, Italy vs. Uruguay and Germany vs. England. It was brilliant, black, inventor (or improver) of what became also Pelé’s last World Cup and the one with record known as the “bicycle kick”, and best striker of that numbers of spectators in the stadiums. It was within World Cup. Despite the defeat, the third-place in the this setting that Brazil won its third championship, championship left the impression that, with minimum with an unforgettable 4-1 victory, including a

2 Literally, “regular costumer”, meaning a team that loses to another team every time they compete. 3 Brazil won five World Cups and Italy, four. 4 Literally, “blue team” in Italian – referring to the color of the team’s shirts.

FOOTBALL • 37 fantastic goal by Carlos Alberto, considered by view, as well as team attitudes during the games. The sportswriters to be the most beautiful goal in World focus on an offensive game, one of the most defining Cup history resulting from group play (the most characteristics of Brazilian football, suffered a serious beautiful goal, resulting from individual play, was blow and gave way to a game focused on “efficiency” Maradona’s second against England, in 1986). instead of spectacle, inventive dribbles and even too many goals. From that moment on, the victory – even The next meeting was not that significant: they were if meager and devoid of excellence — became the playing for third-place in the 1978 World Cup, and only objective. 1990 and 1994 World Cups provide Brazil prevailed by 2-1. However, the two national clear examples of the new regimen imposed on the teams would meet again in the quarterfinals of the Brazilian team. Brazil’s defeat to Italy in 1982 was 1982 World Cup in Spain. According to new rules, similar to the losses by Hungary and the Brazil needed only a draw. But Brazilian hearts to Germany in 1954 and 1974 World Cups. In both were brimming with optimism, coming from the cases, the losing team had displayed a superior overwhelming superiority Brazil had displayed in level of football, at least regarding the beauty of the the previous games of the competition. While Italy game and the disposition to continuously attack and had drawn its first three games, barely avoiding a attempt the greater number of goals. As such, these defeat to Cameroon newcomers, Brazil had scored losing teams, and their football, generated more 13 times in four games. This was not the team that admiration than the winning Germany. This raises had embarrassed its fans in the 1974 and 1978 World a fundamental question: what is more important, Cups, when Brazil had displayed a shy, scared style of to play well or to win? To thrill the fans with football. No, the current team salvaged our football-art magical movements, as Puskás’s Hungary, Cruyff’s in the best tradition of the 1958 and 1970 teams, with Netherlands and Brazil’s Zico had done, or to play in a players that would make history, among which were style that reaches its greatest moment in a 1-0 victory? Zico, Falcão, Sócrates and Júnior. Generations that had The fact is that in football the chances of loss for the grown up hearing about the accomplishments of Pelé, strongest team are greater than in other group sports. Garrincha, Didi and Gérson now saw a renaissance of This situation is taken to a paroxysm in a World Cup, Brazilian football, the reincarnation of the beautiful where a single reversal of fortune can draw a great game that had transformed football into something campaign to an end. The ghost of the 1982 World Cup quite different from what the English had imagined in has haunted Brazilians to this day, to the point that the 19th century. fans fear catastrophe every time the national team starts to “play the beautiful game.” Coaches have This optimism endured throughout the game, even also frequently invoked the harsh lesson learned at when Italy went ahead twice. The Brazilian team had the Sarriá stadium every time they need to justify a powerful attack and was able to even the score on timid and bureaucratic tactical schemes. both occasions, compensating for the vulnerabilities of the defense, particularly evident that day. The rivalry between Brazil and Italy has one more However, on the third time the went ahead, chapter. In 1994, in the final match in Los Angeles, Brazilian anxiety and the Italian goalkeeper Zoff’s for the first time these old rivals ended the game in a great skills guaranteed victory for the Europeans. draw. It was also the first time that a World Cup final was decided by penalties. A sign of the times: unlike That game changed the course of football, not only in 1970, the drama of the game was due not to goals and Brazil but in the world, challenging tactical points of offensive maneuvers, but to lack of both. The motion

38 • FOOTBALL and beauty of a collective endeavor gave way to the all games played by the Brazilian national team agony of two athletes, penalty kicker and goalkeeper, between 1914 (year when the Brazilian team was one against the other in a unique dance, strangely started) and 1930 were against Argentina. During divorced from the plots and narratives that define this period, the “albiceleste”5 won eight times, the game, with its elaborate and complex strategies. while the Brazilian team won five, starting a trend And so , without receiving a pass from that continued right through the Pelé and Garrincha anyone or anyone, kicked the ball over the era, and has only recently changed. It would have goalpost and gave Brazil its fourth World Cup. been natural, therefore, that some of the most heated battles between the two archrivals would BRAZIL VS. ARGENTINA. have taken place during the most important football RIVALRY BEYOND WORLD CUPS. championship on the planet. However, it took 44 The football rivalry between Brazil and Argentina years and nine World Cups before these two giants has its roots in events that precede the first met in a World Cup. The reason for the delay is World Cup. Given the geographical proximity of that Argentina’s participation in World Cups had the two countries, and difficulties in traveling at been, curiously enough, far below its football the beginning of the 20th century, almost half of potential. With the exception of a second place in Conteúdo Expresso Brazil celebrates another goal against Argentina, during the 1982 World Cup.

5 “White and blue”, a reference to Argentina’s national colors – also the colors of the national team’s shirts.

FOOTBALL • 39 1930, Argentina collected failures and early exits transitional phase between the brilliant generation of in the following championships, with significant the 1960s and the heroes that would end up winning participations in only four of the eight competitions. the following World Cup. The Brazilian victory, by Besides that, during the 1940s, a time when some 2-1, served little purpose, as both teams would be of Argentine football’s most skilled players were eliminated by the Netherlands. peaking (Labruna, Lostau, Pedernera), the World Cup was interrupted due to World War II. In 1978, however, conditions were quite different: Argentina, playing at home, was betting on winning The first confrontation took place in 1974, in its first World Cup, and counted on the support of Hannover. Both teams were far from representing its fans and the courage of its players, who were the best football that either country had ever shown. willing to do everything to reach the final. Brazil, on Brazil had few remnants of the 1970 team that the other hand, seemed to have lost its way trying won its third World Cup, while Argentina was in a to absorb the teachings of “”6, as seen in the previous World Cup. The coach, Claudio Coutinho, passed on the greatest talents of the new generation, in a clear demonstration that he believed that skill and efficiency were incompatible. That is the only possible explanation for the fact that Zico was benched for most of the game and, even more alarming, Falcão was not even included among the players who were enrolled.

Barely a minute into the game, the tone of the match was set: four players were warned against committing violent fouls. And that is how the game went on, a tight, rough and hard game played by both sides, ending with no goals. The decision of who would move on to the final would be determined in the next round by the sum of goals. Argentina made it through after defeating Peru by 6-0 with unexpected ease, which raised questions, never confirmed or denied, that some Peruvian players had been bought so as to allow an overwhelming Argentine victory. Be that as it may, the fact is that Argentina won its first title after knocking out Brazil, which provided further fuel for the rivalry between the two countries. Conteúdo Expresso

th The 25-year-old Ronaldo was the hero of the 5 title, in 2002. During the next World Cup, the current champions

6 Also know in Brazil as “Dutch carousel”, it is a reference to the great team the Netherlands displayed in the 1974 World Cup. Its disarming tactical scheme, where every player exchanged positions constantly with the other, to the complete confusion and disorientation of its opponents, was one of the highlights of that World Cup.

40 • FOOTBALL had among their ranks the greatest player to have appeared since Pelé: . Brazil, on the other hand, had a superior team, one that was reminiscent of its best football. The Brazilian victory, FOOTBALL by 3-1, was decisive, but the team that advanced and PLAYERS won the tournament in the end was the incredible Paolo ’s Italy. Finally, in 1990 – in what was considered to be one of the worst World Cups Luís Pereira – 1949 in history –, in the Delle Alpi Stadium, in Torino, one of the most mediocre Brazilian teams of all Position: full-back time was eliminated by an equally unremarkable Clubs: Palmeiras, Atlético Madrid (Spain), Argentine team. Unremarkable, but still counting Flamengo, Portuguesa, Corinthians on a Maradona, a player who could at any moment Brazilian national team: 1973-1977 set a boring game on fire with a stroke of genius. (33 games) That is how, 10 minutes before the end of the game, the Argentine maestro left Caniggia in front of the Brazilian goalkeeper Taffarel and sent Brazil home. Although the two rivals have not met again in the four Germany in the semifinals changed the script. In World Cups that followed, that possibility is enough to 1974, the meeting between the three-time champions keep fans of both teams on the tip of their toes. and the home team was derailed by the Dutch carousel. In 1986, the melancholic defeat to France, BRAZIL VS. GERMANY. in penalties, prevented the teams led by Zico and RIVALRY OF A SINGLE GAME. Matthäus from meeting in the semifinals. During 16 World Cups (from 1930 to 1998), Brazil and Germany fought a silent duel and fueled a In 2002, both national teams arrived at the World Cup silent rivalry without having ever faced each other discredited by their fans. However, they overcame on the pitch. Decades of fantasies regarding a all obstacles and reached a historical final in the first match between both teams were inflated by the World Cup played in Asia. The conditions were set exceptional performance of both national teams for one of the greatest finals of all time. Brazil and in World Cup history. Although Italy has won more Germany also had among their achievements the championships, only Germany compares to Brazil in greatest number of wins and the most prolific attacks number of finals, and in top four finishes. Not taking in World Cup history. As they stepped into the pitch into account the 1930 and 1950 championships, in at Yokohama Stadium, in the evening of June 30th, which the Germans did not take part, all other World 2002, Brazil was betting on Ronaldo’s goals. He was Cup semifinals had at least one of these two teams. at that point the leading striker in the competition, Of the 16 finals played until 1998, 13 either had Brazil while the Germans placed their hopes in the hands of or Germany on the field. Therefore, it is clear that on , who until then had justified his position many occasions they were close to meeting face to of being the best goalkeeper in the world. Curiously, face. In the 1970 World Cup, for example, memorable it was a blunder by the German goalkeeper, halfway campaigns led by Pelé and Beckenbauer’s teams into the second half, that opened the doors to Brazilian anticipated what would’ve been an unforgettable victory, confirming the country’s hegemony in the most final, but Italy’s equally extraordinary triumph over important international football competition.

FOOTBALL • 41 won 3-1. In Mexico, 1970, the match had all the ingredients of a classic. On one side, the defending world champions led by ; on the other FOOTBALL side, the twice-world champions led by the King of Football, who claimed he was ready to end his career PLAYERS capturing the Jules Rimet trophy for good. And so, in a balanced and highly skilled game, Brazil was Mauro Galvão – 1961 luckier and won 1-0, giving birth to the belief that whenever it defeats England it will become world Position: full-back champion. The magic was broken in 1994, when Clubs: Internacional, Bangu, Botafogo, Brazil won without having played England, who had Grêmio, Vasco not even qualified. In 2002, a majority of analysts Brazilian national team: 1986-1990 and pundits had predicted the triumph of Beckham’s (24 games) team and had discarded coach Felipe Scolari’s team. Once again Brazil reached a title after defeating England (2-1).

BRAZIL VS. ENGLAND. BRAZIL VS. NETHERLANDS. TO INVENT OR TO PERFECT. FOUR ELECTRIFYING MEETINGS. If the English invented the sport, and it is often The offensive style played by Brazilians and said that Brazilians perfected it, so one would Dutchs has resulted in memorable games and expect a great rivalry between both teams. The a rivalry that began with Brazil’s defeat in the first game during the 1958 World Cup, however, semifinals of the 1974 World Cup, in Germany. did not live up to expectations. On the one hand, If, on the one hand, the result was considered Brazil was still without Pelé or Garrincha7, i.e. normal given the spectacular football played by without the irresistible forces that would make the orange team, on the other hand it caused it world champion a few weeks later. On the perplexity, given that until then the Netherlands other hand, England was still traumatized by the simply did not exist on the football map – its airplane accident that had befallen Manchester participation had been limited to 1934 and 1938 United a few months before, and was still suffering World Cups, when they had been eliminated in from its failures in two previous World Cups. One the very first games. Four decades later, however, should mention that England, perhaps considering combining a generation of exceptional players with itself superior to the opposition, had refused to a revolutionary tactical system that profoundly participate in the first three tournaments. The sum altered the way teams position themselves on of these negative circumstances resulted in the first the field, the players in orange jerseys thrilled scoreless game (0-0) in World Cup history. the world and frustrated the Brazilian dream of conquering a fourth championship. In the next World Cup, in Chile, the rivals met in the quarterfinals. Led by a fabulous Garrincha, Brazil Twenty years later, Brazil once again faced the

7 Both were on the bench.

42 • FOOTBALL Dutchs, who lacked the brilliance of previous teams, with the prospect of sudden defeat, both teams but nonetheless were worthy of respect. In the pushed forward, making the extra period the best United States’ World Cup quarterfinals, the give-and- part of the game. The score, however, remained go between Romário and Bebeto swung a balanced the same, and the game had to be decided match in Brazil’s favor, providing Brazil with a 3-2 by penalties. Two extraordinary defenses by victory in one of the most thrilling matches of the Brazilian goalkeeper Taffarel gave Brazil the right World Cup. It was a sweet Brazilian revenge against to be in the final match. an opponent which had conquered its place among the strongest teams in the world. Finally, Brazil and Netherlands fought a top class battle in a decisive stage of In the 1998 World Cup, a very talented Dutch World Cup. Both teams have been criticized for team faced young Ronaldo and ’s team, playing without the flair and charm of old times. in a semifinal considered by many the deciding Nevertheless, they had been showing greater game of the competition. At the end of regular passing skills than most participants did, in time, the game stood at a 1-1 draw, and the another World Cup marked by defensive play. The contenders offered the spectators a dramatic Netherlands scored 2-1, ascribing the status of a extra time, thanks to the newly instated rule that permanent classic of international football to this determined that whichever team scored first confrontation. The Brazilian dream of willing the would be the winner, with no need to play 30 sixth title has been deferred to 2014, on the grass full extra minutes (golden goal rule). So, faced of the legendary Maracanã. Conteúdo Expresso Neeskens scored, sending Brazil home in 1974.

FOOTBALL • 43 As a result, losing to Uruguay at that time was not as remarkable an event as one might suppose, FOOTBALL TRIVIA even if Brazil was the home team. But growing euphoria during the spectacular campaign blinded The highest attendance at a football game in Brazilians to the possibility of failure and made Brazil happened during the 1950 World Cup final: the final result (Uruguayan victory by 2-1) a 199,854 people watched Brazil lose to Uruguay much greater disappointment, with calamitous (10% of Uruguay’s population at the time!). consequences for the country’s self-esteem, given that Brazil identified itself so much with its heroes in shorts and jerseys. For the winners, victory was no less meaningful. One need only mention that Uruguayan newspapers, when coming up with BRAZIL VS. URUGUAY. THE DEFEAT WHICH CAN a list of the most important events of the 20th NEVER BE AVENGED. century, never fail to mention the “Maracanazo”, Brazil and Uruguay have only met twice in World as the game became known in Uruguay. Be Cup history. The first meeting, however, caused that as it may, Uruguay’s indisputable victory such commotion among players and fans from both revealed a fundamental truth about brief football sides that an automatic and permanent rivalry was competitions such as the World Cup: the track established. In truth, as in the case with Argentina, record of a team is not helpful in the final; it can tough games between Brazil and Uruguay had occurred actually have the detrimental effect of reducing before the World Cup came into existence, in either the focus of the team that thinks itself superior. the South American championship or in the Taça Rio , the latter being played by these two countries The emotions surrounding the semifinal between only. On the world stage, while Uruguayans bragged Brazil and Uruguay in the 1970 World Cup were, about having won the only World Cup they participated to a large extent, due to its historical background. in, Brazil hoped that, hosting the competition, it would Although at the time of the “Maracanazo” Pelé was reveal the world its true strength. only nine years old, Rivellino was four and the coach Zagallo eight, they all carried on their shoulders the On the eve of the great final, the chances of both weight of failures past. And it added extra fear for teams were measured according to their performance those who believed in coincidences. Brazil had been throughout the competition (while Brazil had annihilated conducting a fabulous campaign in Mexico, while Sweden and Spain, scoring 13 goals in two games, Uruguay’s path had been uncertain and uninspired, Uruguay had done no better than a draw and a close exactly as 20 years before. In the field, however, victory against the same rivals). This led Brazilians to in a game marked by brilliant plays by Pelé, Brazil feel certain of winning the title. Two months before, handed Uruguay a 3-1 defeat, and paved its way however, in the aforementioned Taça Rio Branco, in São to the final. That was the last time these teams Paulo, Brazil encountered great difficulties to overcome met in the World Cup, which can be explained by the Uruguayan team, having lost once (3-4) and won the decadence of the Uruguayan team, which only twice by close margins (3-2, and 1-0). It is interesting to qualified to four of the next eight championships. note that the Uruguayan team that played Brazil in those matches was almost identical to the team that faced If Brazil has any predominant feeling of superiority Brazil on that sinister afternoon of June 16th. or inferiority regarding each of its great World

44 • FOOTBALL Conteúdo Expresso Before the 1970 final, the Maracanazo still haunted the Brazilian team.

Cup rivals, in the case of Uruguay that feeling be written. Will it be the opportunity which fans continues to be one of inferiority. Despite a wait so eagerly to finally defeat France? Will we convincing victory in Mexico, obtained with one of have, once again, a final between Brazil and Italy, the most brilliant football formations of all time, it allowing the former to consolidate the advantage was not enough to remedy the pain caused by the etched in 1994? And the clash between Brazil and disaster of 1950. Germany: will it happen again, or is that an event only rarely viewed? And what about Brazil and RIVALS MEET. Argentina, both teams traditionally full of talented National teams such as France, Italy, Argentina, players: will their paths converge once more? The Germany, Netherlands and Uruguay have fact is that in 2014, with the World Cup taking place every chance to be in the following World Cup in Brazil, these fierce rivalries will be as intense tournaments, which means that new chapters as never seen before, incited by one of the most of long-standing rivalries with Brazil are still to fanatic crowds in the world.

Mário Araújo is an author and a fanatic football fan since 1970. In 2006, he won the Prêmio Jabuti in the category of Short Stories and Chronicles, with the book A Hora Extrema [The Extreme Hour], published by 7Letras. In 2008 his book Restos [Leftovers] was published by Bertrand Brasil.

FOOTBALL • 45 INTERVIEW

Zico

Arthur Antunes Coimbra, better known as Zico, is one of Brazil’s greatest football players of all time. He played for Flamengo for 16 years, having scored over 500 goals. He played for the Brazilian national team between 1976 and 1989, during which time he scored 68 goals. Besides various titles with Flamengo, in Rio de Janeiro, he also won four national titles and the Taça Libertadores da América [the South American Team Championship] and a Club World Cup. After retiring as a player, Zico has been working as a coach; as such, he has trained many clubs and national teams.

46 • FOOTBALL Texts from Brazil: Football is undoubtedly and increasingly a global phenomenon. Is it still possible, in spite of the greater mobility of players and coaches, to identify a typical Brazilian way of playing? Zico: I believe so. Brazil is different from other countries in having a greater knowledge about football culture. In terms of human potential, the African nations, for example, are similar, although Brazil has a more developed competitive spirit. The African player, though technically comparable, often doesn’t realize that football is also about results, discipline and tactics. Football has made much progress in Africa because its players are going to the greatest football centers and learning these things. I have no doubt they are close to winning a World Cup. It could have happened already, had they been able to bring both elements together. I believe that African culture works well with football. Conteúdo Expresso Japanese culture, however, is different1. A Japanese player will Japanese profile is to follow what Zico: Brazilian coaches don’t have a harder time making an has been determined. have the same prominence as individual play which involves Brazilian players. The prevailing risk and creativity, because it’s TB: It is interesting that you idea is that Brazilian players not part of their culture; they make this connection between don’t really need a coach. are more group-oriented, and Brazilians and Africans. People often say: “Oh, with the focus more on the collective. Curiously, Africans have players you have it’s really easy So players are afraid to try an preferred European coaches. I to coach, etc...” As a result, individual play, to fail, and to be imagine what would happen if Brazilian coaches don’t have the criticized. They are not daring Africans had Brazilian coaches, same reputation abroad, and because they think that would and were allowed to play in a Europeans end up being more mean disobeying an order. The more flexible style, perhaps... in demand. Africans, who need

1 Zico coached team, in Japan, and also trained the Japanese national team for years — including in the 2006 World Cup.

FOOTBALL • 47 to complement their game with TB: And regarding the fans, mindset regarding religious structure, discipline and tactics, would you say that Brazilian fans matters, aside from their often prefer European coaches are very different from the fans enthusiasm for football, which because of the perception that you have seen elsewhere? borders on fanatism. The way a Brazilian coach wouldn’t be as Zico: No, not really. Although, they root for their teams, and good at promoting those aspects Turkey, I must say, was how they express themselves, is of the game. different2. They have a unique truly something else. In Brazil, Italy3, and Greece4 there is a passion for football, but the fanatic love the Turks show for their teams, even small teams, is something I have never seen before.

TB: Is it possible to compare your work as a coach to being a diplomat, in the sense that you travel to different countries to open doors, establish contacts, and promote Brazil? Zico: That is a consequence. When I went to Japan, for example, I was more worried about the responsibilities of my new , rather than about opening doors. As you become more known and develop a certain know-how, your work will be in greater demand and one will have to show greater skills. I was invited to help develop football in Japan. If my work is successful, it ends up, indirectly, promoting “Brazilian products,” so to speak. But I didn’t go there to “open doors...” My objective was to use my experience to help develop professional Japanese football. That’s what

Ramón Muniz I had in mind. But I believe that

2 Zico also trained the Turkish team Fenerbahçe, helping it reach quarterfinals in 2007-08 UEFA Champions League — the best result ever achieved by a Turkish team in an European competiton. 3 Zico played for the Udinese team for many years. 4 Zico trained the greek team Olympiakos in 2009/2010.

48 • FOOTBALL if you are successful, you are kids to solve the family’s financial somehow promoting Brazilian problems, which they weren’t products. able to do. The kid is seen as the family savior. So, when a player TB: At the time, were they receives an international offer, FOOTBALL already thinking about hosting a he generally accepts it. Brazilian PLAYERS World Cup in Japan? clubs have no means of keeping Zico: No, I don’t believe so... these players... These athletes The Japanese are meticulous are in the hands of businessmen. – 1965 planners, and take one step at Often the clubs don’t own 100% a time. Also, at the time FIFA of their players’ rights, and so it’s Position: full-back didn’t really have the mindset of easy to take them away. Clubs: Flamengo, Benfica (Portugal), promoting World Cups in different Roma, Genoa (Italy) countries, rotating, etc. I believe TB: I imagine that clubs have Brazilian national team: 1989-2000 that as football became more development teams with the (81 games, 3 goals) popular, and the public became objective of forming players more engaged, the Japanese to be sold on the international began to see the opportunity. market, as if they were an export be given to the tactical aspects of product... the game. The physical training TB: What is your opinion Zico: That is true, no doubt about it. abroad, on the other hand, is regarding the exodus of often not as rigorous as in Brazil; Brazilian players? Although TB: Could it be that, at this I feel comfortable saying Brazil is this has existed for some time, formation stage, young players not lacking at all in that regard. it now includes very young suffer already an influence Traditionally, the difference in players, who don’t even get the of the European style of physical condition happens at opportunity to play in Brazil playing? I mean, the young the beginning of the football before going abroad. player is mainly formed and season, but that is less the Zico: I believe that are various trained to play in Europe, case nowadays with the larger reasons for this. First, CBF with an emphasis on physical European clubs. Given the high [Brazilian Football Confederation] conditioning above technical investment in players, some is to blame because it doesn’t abilities? What is your opinion? teams are not training as they support Brazilian clubs Zico: Well, if it happens very did before; instead they set up — by promoting lucrative early, then yes. But if the player exhibition games in the Arab, championships — so the clubs leaves the country at the age of Chinese or Japanese markets — might afford to keep the players 16 or 17, then he already has a where they make a fortune — in in Brazil. Then there is the social- solid foundation based on our order to be able to pay for their economic situation of the country. style of football. Let me illustrate players. A recent example is Real Today, people want immediate this with some current examples: Madrid, who acquired a bunch solutions. When I was a player, I Felipe Coutinho, from Vasco; of players, and immediately went to play abroad when I was Wellington, from Fluminense; started the football season; as 30, by which time I had a solid or even , from Santos: a result, one by one the players career in Brazil. Many of the if they go abroad now they will developed injuries, and the club kids now suffer a lot of family have a foundation that was built didn’t win anything. Before, pressure when they start playing in Brazil, so their game won’t players worked out for a month, football. The parents want the change. A greater emphasis will developing a basis that lasted

FOOTBALL • 49 see any improvement in results. begun, but how do you see this You will end up too limited by unfolding? those dimensions. In my case, Zico: I think it’s very important. I played a lot of as an Brazil, given its history and FOOTBALL adolescent. Between 13 and 17, its achievements, deserves to PLAYERS I played both types of football host a World Cup again. I hope simultaneously. I did not take everything works out well and part in any futsal league, but I that the 2014 Cup will promote Falcão – 1953 played all the time nonetheless, Brazilian football even more. as did other players. Nowadays, Position: defensive clubs don’t allow this anymore. TB: I know that even when Clubs: Internacional, Roma, São Paulo As a result, some players even you were living abroad you Brazilian national team: 1976-1986 give up outdoor football because followed Brazilian club football (28 games, 6 goals) they can often make more money closely, above all Flamengo, playing futsal. So the question which has always been your today is more complicated... To club in Brazil. Have you ever conclude, if an athlete plays both wished, for a moment even, to through the whole season. In types of football at once, it can be in Andrade’s5 shoes when he terms of evolution, in preparing be very helpful. But if he plays became the national champion the athletes, I don’t see any one type only, it will be hard to with Flamengo? difference in Europe from what make the switch. Zico: No, never... It never crossed happens in Brazil. my mind. Never. I believe I did TB: In your opinion, what does what I had to do in Flamengo, TB: Aside from its well known it mean, today, to play for the and I truly don’t give it a second excellence in outdoor football, national team? Do you think it thought. I am a big fan, though. Brazil also produces great has the same importance it had I rooted a lot for this to happen, indoor players (futsal), winning when Pelé played, or even during especially since I believed in world championships, etc. You your time? Andrade, I was the one who also started playing futsal. Do Zico: Yes, certainly... In any gave him the opportunity to you believe futsal somehow situation, everyone wants to become the coach. He worked at prepares an athlete for outdoor play for the national team. my club for almost 7 years, and football? The first example It’s every player’s dream. participated in all categories. So I that comes to mind is Falcão, a Everyone wants to be a part of have always been happy with his major football player who grew it, everyone loves to put on the success, because besides having up playing futsal, and who Brazilian uniform and craves to worked with him, I helped him ended up being very successful play again and again for Brazil... professionally, I believed in him on the field. I think it will always be this way. and offered him the opportunity Zico: Indoor training is helpful This won’t change. to grow. if you practice in indoor and outdoor pitchs during the same TB: What do you think about TB: When you retired as a player, period. If you only practice one the World Cup in Brazil? The were you already thinking about type of football, then you won’t preparations have only just coaching?

5 Andrade was Flamengo’s coach during the exciting 2009 campaign, which gave Flamengo Brazil’s national championship. Zico was part of Flamengo’s technical commission for a very brief period in 2010.

50 • FOOTBALL Zico: No! Actually, I had to eat of other things: planning, the or other great national teams my own words... I always said other team, tactics... Just about having to bring in coaches I didn’t want to coach... But everything that happens with from other countries. that was more because my a football team involves the professional life was always coach. So I knew it would be TB: When you think of all the full of obligations, always very demanding, and I didn’t great games the Brazilian very busy, and I spent very want it, but it happened, and team, or even Flamengo, have little time with my family. I there was a reason for it. When played since you retired, is didn’t have much time to see I was in Japan I really started there any game you would like my kids growing up, to give liking it, and here am I now, to have played in? them more opportunities and coaching. Zico: You know, I don’t think attention. That is why the idea about these things. Specially of coaching didn’t appeal to TB: Do you believe that one day because I spent a lot of time me. Being a coach requires the Brazilian national team will playing. Many years... So I an even greater commitment. hire a foreign coach? don’t keep imagining being When you are a player, you just Zico: I don’t see the need for in a certain situation. It has worry about yourself, if you a foreign coach to head the never crossed my mind. What are doing well, etc. As a coach, Brazilian team, in the same way I was able to do, I did, and you have to worry about a lot that I don’t imagine Italy, Spain that’s that. Conteúdo Expresso Zico plays against New Zealand national team.

FOOTBALL • 51 FICTION

Scars (a football story)

By Luiz Ruffato

Yes, the 21st of June 1970 became one of the most important dates in Brazilian history. After all, that was the day Brazil won the Jules Rimet Trophy in perpetuity, in an unforgettable match against Italy, watched by more than one hundred thousand Mexican fanatics crammed into Estádio Asteca, 4-1, remember? But 1970 was also the year of the founding and glory of the town of Cataguases’ ephemeral Botafogo Football Club, aka “Little Botafogo”, which fell apart, undefeated (a rare occurrence in the annals of the British sport), after twenty matches from August to December of that year. And, to refresh memories, which tend to fade, we have prepared this brief account.

52 • FOOTBALL Restless, Miguel began getting up late at night to puff on a rollie. Unable to sleep, he wandered the yard, a chill nipping at the hair on his body, a fog cloaking the landscape, wondering what was going to happen now that the mixed train really did look like it was going to be suspended and only ore carriers were going to trundle the tracks, no passenger cars, and how he, who provided for his family transporting goods on his cart from his spot in Station Square, was going to get by with fewer runs, what with his kids, eight of them, under-aged, and the house still unfinished. And he’d spend the night in this state of agitation, squatting in the darkness, thinking, and when on tiptoes his wife caught him by surprise, “Can’t sleep?” he’d gruffly reply, “No, Creusa. I’m staking out a skunk that scared the hens. Didn’t you hear it?” or, “No, Creusa. I thought I heard a shoe scuffing and came to see if someone was here...” or, “No, Creusa. I thought I heard someone calling. Didn’t you hear it?” and she’d reply, “You know I’m a heavy sleeper...” ...because they’d freed themselves of rent... he could hardly believe it... Years, gypsy-like, here-n-there, the kids didn’t even take pets. The ridicule of landlords humiliating him in front of his wife, kids, Ramón Muniz

FOOTBALL • 53 neighbours, strangers. He was no lowlife to have to listen to that! He’d swallow the insults, gather up his belongings and they’d be up and off at the crack of dawn, furtively herding out stools and babes- in-arms, pots and runny-noses, tables and mangy-heads, his blood, FOOTBALL his furniture. And like that he stumbled high-and-low, hand-to-mouth, PLAYERS ashamed, debt-ridden, family swelling, abnormal plans pecking at his ideas, ant poison, taking off into the world, until, showing that He Zito – 1932 doesn’t forsake his own, the brother-in-law found them holed-up in a friend’s garage in Vila Teresa, sick, weary, and the squabble had dragged Position: defensive midfielder on without resolution ever since the passing of old Justi, fuelling hostilities Clubs: Santos and curses and smart-arsed remarks, with threats of bloodshed and big-shot- Brazilian national team: 1955-1963 lawyers-with-ringed-fingers wedged between once-loving relatives, their eyes (46 games, 3 goals) on some poorly cultivated land in the outskirts of Rodeiro, a place of soil washouts and wild senna, white ants and rat snakes, dirt and dust forgetting that they weren’t speaking, gave her the good news, “Creusa, my sister, my sister!” (hugs, tears) “It’s been so long, my god, so long!” needing her to be in agreement, “... end to this hell... We’ll work something out “I’ll buy your plot! It’s not worth a lot, but if it means putting this story to rest “We just need things to go back to the way they were before, that’s what matters They bought the land in Paraíso in instalments, the neighbourhood still half vacant, far from everything, no water, no electricity, forget asphalt… school? The road that ran at a right angle from Beira-Rio forked off in three directions at the spring: their land was there. To the left, steep, the road wound irascibly, ditches criss-crossing the dust and grass, mud huts and mongrels, the Paraíso of the poor. In the middle, it climbed a gentle slope between mango and avocado trees, brick houses, artesian wells, dogs, the comfortable Paraíso. On the right, paved with gravel, country homes with orchards, German shepherds and ample verandas, the Paraíso of the rich. He fenced it on his own, cut the grass, levelled the base for the foundation. A bricklayer’s assistant by trade, he helped put up the walls. A bunch of drunks did the roof one overcast Sunday in exchange for tripe and cachaça. He paid for the cart in cash, a spot in Station Square, horse and harness, duped into thinking it was a steal, only to realize months later that the scoundrel, in cahoots with some someone on the inside, had

54 • FOOTBALL cheated him, the rat!, because the mixed train was on its last legs, no more passenger cars, which he had thought were his ticket to the future, steady work on-loading off-loading here-to-there: husked and unhusked rice, corn flour, wheat flour, sugar, beans, barbed wire, aluminium wash basins, buckets, brooms, rope, rolls of paper, tobacco, middlings, lamps, lanterns, pasta, oil, kerosene and, stuffed in hessian bags: suckling pigs, chickens, ducks, cats. They moved on a cranky Saturday and took possession of the unplastered walls, hard earth floors, rooms without doors, absent furniture. They fetched water for drinking and cooking and washing clothes and bathing from the spring, sunrise to sunset trails of splattered drops in the dust. They used the outhouse when it was light out, and the chamber pot when it was stormy out and after the six-o’clock prayer. Soon... And he planned a dark-red floor, light-blue walls, dark-blue windows, a well with a pump, a bathroom with a toilet, a gas oven and new clothes for the kids and dentures for the wife and a chestnut colt to replace the mottled mare and and and workers’ bicycles found him at the spring before dawn, “morning Miguel”, disillusioned, calculating the day’s earnings in his head, and, worried, he’d leave his spot as soon as he was free of the merchandise coming-going on the mixed train to head out to the most distant neighbourhoods, Justino, Matadouro, Dico Leite, Ibraim, Santa Clara, Leonardo, to make some extra cash transporting sand and gravel and cement and pebbles and bricks and manure and firewood and grass and cobblestones and everything, “You’re going to wear the poor creature out, Miguel,” his acquaintances warned him, to no avail, until ...tired... short of air... a lump in his throat... a tightness in his chest... a strange turn... “Doctor Nascente said it might be my heart,” he told his wife, who stopped beating clothes on the washboard and hurried into the house FOOTBALL in despair, “Oh, my god, what a tragedy, what misfortune! Why this, my PLAYERS god? What did I do wrong? What did I do wrong?” and collapsed face- down on the bed, bawling her eyes out, lighting a fuse of terror in her – 1955 husband, so that means that... maybe... that thing... might’ve been... serious... and Position: defensive midfielder Death... Clubs: Atlético Mineiro, Roma, his father got the lantern and went outside, the dogs yelped and piddled Sampdoria, São Paulo, Cruzeiro in fear, cartridge belt in hand, an animal was prowling around the hen Brazilian national team: 1977-1985 house, the moist wind tumbled-flung clouds, thunder clapped, lightening (58 games, 5 goals)

FOOTBALL • 55 flashed in the black sky, “Put yer boots on,” yelled his wife from the window, watching the frail light disappear silent behind the granary, the children, huddled under the kitchen table as they’d been taught to do in storms, heard the bang, bolt or gunshot, screamed, in a dither his mother didn’t know if she should comfort her kids, raindrops strummed the roof tiles hammered drummed, the rain drove down in fury, lashed the walls of the hut, the roof danced wildly in the wind, voices sloshed, “Nilda! Nilda!” the cold wind flung open the door, ran amok in the rooms: “... snake... viper... snake...” That night, the dam waters overflowed, flattened the rice, dragged off a young bull, dug out the bamboo-and-clay walls of two shacks, picked up oranges limes and avocadoes, tore up brushwood, destroyed the narrow road to Guidoval. The day dawned licking itself in the sun, when the cracked lips of the father, swollen and vomiting blood, moved to speak and closed, abandoning his smelly remains on the trundle bed. Death... young, my God, too young! How many years? months? days? hours? did he have left? Still so much to do! At least to see his kids grow up, get sorted, was it asking too much? How sad he was that he hadn’t had a proper family! After burying her husband, his mother had abandoned Conteúdo Expresso

56 • FOOTBALL her offspring and taken off, roaming and rambling, a savage creature, unsettled and unhinged. The ten siblings had scattered around the region, separated according to usefulness: the older ones, who were able to use a hoe, employed; the younger ones, out of pity, taken in FOOTBALL by other families; the middle ones put up as help. Six-year-old Miguel, PLAYERS worm-ridden and rachitic, yellow and brittle, had gone from farm to farm, unwanted, until he was taken in by some orange seedling growers in Dona Eusébia, where, spurned even by death, he had flourished among Lúcio – 1978 greenhouses and floods of the Pomba River. He never had news of the others, if they had thrived, if they had become good people, if they had Position: full-back strayed from the straight-and-narrow. Gruff, deflated, arid, he watched Clubs: Internacional, Bayer Leverkusen his wife, the children, heads on her lap, late afternoon, serenely picking (Germany), Bayern München (Germany), Internazionale at lice; or circumspect at bath time scrubbing off grime with a sponge; or Brazilian national team: 2000-2010 full of cheer at night around a bowl of popcorn telling stories of her days (89 games, 4 goals) in Rodeiro; or angrily daubing sores with mercurochrome; or tenderly putting the girls’ hair in pigtails; or moved teaching church songs... while he was stiff, awkward, leery, imagining gestures of affection but only dishing up earfuls, scoldings, abuse, as if the devil worked his arms and legs like a puppet, as if he would be crushed by shame if he was loved. And he grew despondent, nothing could rouse him from the bedroom, the dog sullen at the foot of the bed, the wife sighing and puddling about. Doleful, the children put off fighting, mischief, running, rackets and moped sniffling around the back yard and corridor. Leaning in the late-afternoon window, rollie dangling from his lips, Miguel gazed at the setting sun a hen scratching the hard earth, chicks chirping blithely the horse chewing on dry grass in the lot next-door, resigned his wife taking down clothes from the clothesline, diligent an acquaintance going past, ‘afternoon, Miguel boys having a kick-around in the street the smell of coffee a cat purring on a tuft of lemon grass, languid buckets of water carried by the neighbour, her kids, ‘afternoon, Creusa lighting his rollie one of his daughters petting the dog a bicycle, ‘afternoon, Miguel his wife, Lost yer appetite, have ya?, picking up the iron two other daughters playing house in the doorway a uniform walking to school, wet hair

FOOTBALL • 57 boys having a kick-around in the street a bicycle, ‘afternoon, Miguel lighting his rollie two neighbours on foot, How’re you going, Miguel? a family of born-agains, hair long clothes, suit-n-tie hens clucking in the chicken coop the cat mewing obsessively in the kitchen the dog heading back from the spring, tongue lolling the boys sponge-bathing burnt firewood toads crickets toads a delivery bicycle, groceries lighting his rollie dusk the smell of rice cooking a radio crackling ‘night, Miguel fireflies the landscape muddying the darkness fireflies he tossed away his cigarette butt, closed the window, sat on the bed, no, he couldn’t go on like that, resigned, passive, he had to fight, he had to do something. Already awake when the alarm went off, he got up, inhaled the nauseating fragrance of the early morning and, apprehensively treading the silence, sidestepped the thick shadows and got in the queue outside the Social Security building for a number. The doctor, champollioning his scribbled prescription: Quinidine: three times a day, Digoxin: one tablet in the morning. FOOTBALL “... find something to keep your head busy...” PLAYERS (Jesus in front, long hair, white tunic, men and women, some familiar, slowly climb the steep hill. They come to a halt at the top. A – 1921-2002 young man, the spitting image of his long-lost brother Zelito, crosses the gathering perpendicularly shepherding a cow in flames. The animal Position: midfielder follows, slow, pitiful, resigned. He thinks of calling out to him but, Clubs: Flamengo, Bangu, São Paulo “Miguel!” he hears his name being called. Startled, he approaches. Brazilian national team: 1942-1957 Jesus places his bird-like hand on his left shoulder and, turning to where (53 games, 30 goals) they’ve come from, says, gently, “Miguel, you’ve come all that way,” pointing at a tiny hut, a thread from the chimney marking the landscape. Then, turning to where they are headed, he says, “It’s not far now,”

58 • FOOTBALL pointing to a narrow trail winding down the slope. Miguel moves on, starts down the trail alone. A few steps further, he turns. The group is still. Already distant, Zelito (is it really his brother?), leading the cow in flames, disappears behind an enormous rock.) FOOTBALL The pot filled the mug with piping-hot coffee again and Miguel PLAYERS sucked on his rollie. “I need to get my act together, Creusa,” he said, observing, out of the corner of his eye, through the window, his son entering the front yard, haltered horse, the cart shafts arms raised to 1921-2005 the sky. His third boy child, counting back from the oldest, little Paco, graceless as a grasshopper people joked, and he’d bawl, then accepted Position: midfielder it. The scallywag’d chase a ball from dawn to dusk if he could! “He Clubs: Vasco, Flamengo, Palmeiras, needs a talking to. He’s not interested in school or anything,” said Santos, São Paulo, Ponte Preta Brazilian national team: 1940-1956 his wife, invading her husband’s thoughts. “He’s always over in Vila (39 games, 22 goals) Teresa...” “Vila Teresa?” “They’ve got a there, Dad...” “Don’t we?” “We haven’t got a team...” A spunky centre forward, back in Dona Eusébia he had traded dances for football. From Monday to Friday he’d scour conversations to discover where the kick-arounds were going to be. Sundays, shorts and jersey, he defended himself, kicks slams dribbles shoves punches slugs headbutts bites pinches elbowings corner-kicks stomps fouls curses throw-ins kneeings gobs-of-spit goals and then, battered, purple shins, crooked toes, chipped nails, aching ribs, swollen eyes and broken teeth, he’d tend to orange and lime seedlings. When he married, he gave up football for pregnancies. He grew rigid, stiff-legged. So... Between cart runs, he ruminated, daydreamed. Cataguases had its own Flamengo; Leonardo had Vasco; Granjaria had América. And now, there’d be Botafogo too – from Paraíso! The following have pledged to provide:

Boots, shorts and , , each man brings his own. From the stores in Beira-Rio he got donations and negotiated tubes of black Guarany dye and white Acrilex fabric paint. And an official number five leather ball and a Styrofoam cooler.

FOOTBALL • 59 Conteúdo Expresso

On the weekend, Creusa sweated over a makeshift cooker boiling white cotton jerseys regurgitating black water, pinches of salt to set the colour, then sun-dried and folded, “No harm in him having this hobby, poor thing...” Fisher Zé, a helpful neighbour from the poor part of Paraíso, painstakingly painted numbers on backs, made a stencil, designed a shield, wrote BOTAFOGO F.C. on it, and made neat transfers to each jacket, over the heart, like an artist, “He’ll go far, this one,” the smell of acrylic invading the house, Miguel’s lame heart having completely slipped his mind. He put together the team by word of mouth, folks from thereabouts, up on the shelf of the reserve benches of Flamengo, Operário, Manufatora, Cataguases, veterans and youths, some brave, some discontent, even a guy who claimed to be the nephew of Friaça, the one who played in the final against Uruguay, 2-1, Maracanã Stadium, 1950 World Cup, a self-important, stuck-up, sleazy big-

60 • FOOTBALL mouth who joined and left the team in the first training session, cheeky bastard! And along came matches and wins. Timid at first, like their debut match, crowdless, 1-0 against Vila Teresa, in upper Paraíso, where, when kicked, the ball would skid dozens of meters until coming to rest against a bush, a small tree, a pile of dry twigs. By the fourth game, however, the team now acclaimed, the kids were bumping their bums down the hillside to fetch the ball; vendors flocked to the sides of the pitch selling oranges, sugar-cane juice, ice lollies, floss, popcorn; coquettes squealed greedy little “ohs”; and perplexed eyes watched their 3-1 victory over Vasco, which even played in the Cataguasense Sports League championship... In a low voice, Miguel imparted wisdoms such as light lunches before matches, abstinence from drink and cigarettes, Iodex on thighs, shins bound with gauze and the sign of the cross when they ran onto the pitch. Ice, heat patches, arnica on bruises. Inflated, he instructed, cursed, provoked, warned, changed, substituted, radiated enthusiasm. He arranged matches and collected bets, then paternalistically shared their expense allowance in noisy rounds of beer, cachaça and cigarettes. Strategist, they rode their bikes in a tight group over to their opponents’ pitches, unafraid and mean, brave and intimidating, blackbirds, because they were fearless. The inaugural intermunicipal challenge befell the team, now famed – ninth match, according to Fisher Zé, keeper of tabs, who, kept off the team for his God-awful playing, but an enthusiast nonetheless, wanted to be a part of everything. And, to get to Astolfo Dutra to do battle with Portuense, a robust team of regional renown, they hired Zé Pinto of Vila Teresa’s little International KB-6 truck, engine trouble, sweat and dust, an incontestable and arithmetic 2-1. A flood FOOTBALL of other challenges ensued: Spartano, from Rodeiro (2-0), Primeiro de PLAYERS Maio, from Miraí (1-0), Cruzeiro, from Guidoval (3-1). Not to mention the usual suspects: Bairro-Jardim, Brasil, América... In short, the Didi – 1929-2001 only ones they hadn’t slain were the giants: Operário, Flamengo, Manufatora and Cataguases. Position: midfielder Little blinking lights adorned the shops on Rua do Comércio, Clubs: Fluminense, Botafogo, Real wants wishes displayed in windows dressed for Christmas. Madrid, Sporting Cristal (Peru), São Paulo Sunday the 20th, Miguel had started his day pacing back and forth Brazilian national team: 1952-1962 waiting for the bus hired by Mr. Rodrigues to take the star-studded line- (68 games, 20 goals) up to Recreio for the match against Ideal, the KB-6 out of the question since they’d be taking the Rio-Bahia Highway, good god, the Rio-Bahia!

FOOTBALL • 61 Some of them hadn’t even been as far as Leopoldina... At eleven, the rattletrap pulled up outside Auzílio’s Bar jangling percussively and belting out a popular samba and the loading began, sacks of oranges, sweet, navel, bitter and peeled, and water from the spring and two large bottles of plonk and the massage kit and a little barrel of cachaça and four dozen skyrockets and the bag of uniforms and the Styrofoam cooler packed with ice, and little by little the athletes piled in, fed and full, while Miguel stood at the door, grinning from ear to ear, overseeing. At high noon, the last check, “Close her up... Off we go, folks!” The engine scraped, coughed, gasped, spluttered, bare feet and mongrel dogs escorted the wheels until, exhausted and happy, they gave up. Paco shadowed him, his pet, from day one, “My amulet,” Miguel told folks proudly. Now, at the window, he contemplated the landscape outside, tremulous in the heat, cows, white ants, buzzards, abandoned hut, trees, dog, buzzards, cart, parasol, hat, vagrant, buzzards, clouds, some players snoozed, others whispered, one laughed, the father wandered down the aisle, dreaming perhaps, Next year... The hot afternoon slumped over empty bleachers ice-cream cart the drunk aped the steps of an improbable samba a mongrel yapped in cowardice the lunatic spat words grunted raved a monkey suspiciously accepted popcorn from the hands of an enthralled boy the soldier watched the game nonchalantly a sloth a suspended arrow scratched time atop an oiti tree the wind caressed the leaves of the mango trees peeking over the wall FOOTBALL 2-0 PLAYERS and they drained the bottles of plonk while making merry and let off forty-eight skyrockets and exhausted went over the match play- Gérson – 1941 by-play in Zenoian fashion and famished urged the driver, Snail!, to go faster, between their singing and Miguel’s impassioned speech, Position: midfielder “Good God!, because honestly...” Imperceptibly, the night turned off Clubs: Flamengo, Botafogo, São Paulo, the world outside... Fluminense The bus rolled across the bumpy, unpaved parking area of a Brazilian national team: 1961-1972 service station, “Gotta fill the tank,” said the driver before they could (70 games, 14 goals) protest and parked joints creaking in front of the bar with sickly light bulbs and they all got out and headed for the urinals. Although his bladder was full, Paco preferred to stay, watching the team’s messing

62 • FOOTBALL about from afar, but his father urged him, “Let’s go stretch our legs, it’s still a good ways to go,” and he got out sulking, walked into the heat, the flickering gleam of headlights on the Rio-Bahia. FOOTBALL TRIVIA Shy, to avoid having to pee near the older guys he headed into the darkness, chirping of crickets, fireflies’ mini fires, thumping Cafu is the player with most caps for the Brazilian of toads, buzzing of mosquitoes, two horses lying down scrambled national squad, with 142 games between 1990 up startled and trotted away, a dog sniffed the ground indifferently. and 2006. He played at 20 World Cup games. Feeling his way, he looked for a place to relieve himself and stumbled into two broken trucks, identical in their abandoned ruin. Intrigued, driver’s seats empty, he trod barefoot, fearful and curious, between the trucks with their holey canvases, thought he heard whispers, murmuring, and stopped. Ears pricked, heart racing. The darkness. Engines rumbled on the Rio-Bahia. He trod barefoot, fearful and curious, and stopped behind an F-600 exhaling bad breath from under its canvas. Hesitant, his tiny daring fingers lifted a small flap dozens of slivers of light flickered deep in the gloom lighting his pallid, petrified face, “Where are we, sonny?” asked a feeble voice, obscure accent; paralyzed his body froze, skeletal hands skull-like faces, “What town is this, sonny?” and his dry tongue was fear and terror, “Is this São Paulo already?” the babble grew louder, “Is it?” and gummy mouths held out bony arms, “Are you going to São Paulo too?” a baby cried, “Hop in!” laughter, “Hey, boy!” and running, pallid, he bumped into his father, impatient, chewing on the tip of his rollie, at the door of the bus, “Everyone’s been waiting for you, damn it! Hurry up and get in!”

Translated from the Portuguese by Alison Entrekin.

From Vista Parcial da Noite (Rio de Janeiro: Record, 2006).

Luiz Ruffato was born in Cataguases, in the Brazilian state of . He is the author of Eles Eram Muitos Cavalos (2001), which was also published in Italy, France, Portugal and Argentina; De mim já nem se Lembra (2007) and Estive em Lisboa e Lembrei de Você (2009). Additionally, he has been working since 2005 on the project Inferno Provisório, comprising five volumes, four of which have already been published: Mamma, Son Tanto Felice and O Mundo Inimigo (both in 2005, also published in France), Vista Parcial da Noite (2006) and O Livro das Impossibilidades (2008).

Alison Entrekin has translated a number of works by Brazilian authors, including City of God, by Paulo Lins, The Eternal Son, by Cristovão Tezza, and Budapest, by .

FOOTBALL • 63 Football and literature: bad passes and give-and-go

By João Cezar de Castro Rocha

BAD PASSES? The theme “football and literature” generates some perplexity, as if the importance of the game to national culture had no equivalent in fiction. However, one need only to think of Nelson Rodrigues, both as a playwright and a chronicler, to recognize that football and fiction work together as the best players and score many beautiful goals. In Nelson’s plays, football — and specially the fan’s passion for the sport — often helps reveal a certain type of character — the carioca [a person from Rio de Janeiro] — and a certain atmosphere — the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro. In his chronicles, however, soccer is often used as a means to reveal the country’s character.

64 • FOOTBALL The author of A Falecida [The Deceased]1 has some memorable definitions: thanks to him we know the Brazilian team is “the nation in cleats”, and that the victory over the Swedes in 1958 not only allowed us to overcome the trauma of 1950, but also enabled us to overcome “the mongrel complex”2 that hounded Brazil as an interracial civilization. During the 1958 final, when the Swedes scored four minutes into the first half, suddenly putting the hosts up 1-0, the phantom of 1950 appeared to be back. However, Brazil was saved by “Mr. Football,” as the European newspapers referred to Didi. With typical elegance, Didi held the ball under his arm, as if nothing had happened, and calmly walked back to the center of the field: total control over his emotions and, above all, total confidence in the superiority of Brazilian football, of the black and interracial football played by Didi, Garrincha and Pelé3. The triumph of 1958, repeated four years later, brought about new praise for miscegenation and for the talents of mixed race players — as if the players in green and yellow were all enthusiastic readers of Casa Grande & Senzala [Master’s House & Slave Quarters]4. For this reason, the Brazilian way of playing revealed much more than merely an exceptional athletic ability. In the words of Nelson Rodrigues: “I repeat: Brazilians are a new human experience. The Brazilian man enters history with a new original, revolutionary and creative

component: the molecagem [playful resourcefulness Conteúdo Expresso and irreverence].”5 This is “the beautiful game”, the Didi, one of the greatest ever, whom the European press nicknamed Mr. Football.

1 Nelson Rodrigues wrote chronicles about football to magazines and newspapers. As a playwright, Nelson was a skilful chronicler of Brazil’s urban characters in the 1940s and 1950s, depicting in a very interesting and ironic way the contradictions and false morality that were inherent to apparently perfect middle-class Brazilian families. The sexual subtext of his plays caused some kind of scandal at the time. 2 In the author’s own words: “Any Brazilian player, when freed from his inhibitions and in a state of grace, is something unique in fantasy, improvisation, invention. To summarize: we have too many skills. Just one thing gets in the way and, at times, neutralizes these qualities. What I’m talking about is what I might call our ‘mongrel complex.’ By ‘mongrel complex’ I mean how Brazilians place themselves in a position of inferiority regarding the rest of the world. This happens in all areas and, above all, in football. To say that we consider ourselves ‘the best’ is a cynical lie. (…) In the already mentioned embarrassment of 1950, we were better than our adversaries. Besides that, we only needed a draw. So — we lost in the most abject manner. And for a simple reason — because Obdulio kicked us about, as if we were mongrels. I tell you — our national team’s problem is not football, technique, tactics. Not at all. It is a problem of faith. Brazilians need to believe they are not mongrels, and that they have football in excess, to display here, in Sweden.” (Manchete Esportiva, 05/13/1958). 3 A great recap of the game can be found at this link, even though it only shows the end of Didi’s decisive walk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g7TSlkY1xc. 4 Casa-Grande & Senzala, published by Gilberto Freyre in 1933, is one of the key books to understand the cultural formation of the Brazilian people. Freyre was the first important author to praise African heritage and to associate positive traits to miscegenation. Freyre is criticized, though, for presenting a romanticized version of the miscegenation process, lacking to emphasize the violence black and indigenous women were subjected to in Brazilian patriarchal society. 5 RODRIGUES, Nelson. “O escrete de loucos”. In CASTRO, Ruy (org.). A pátria em chuteiras. Novas crônicas de futebol. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1994, p. 81. The chronicle was originally published in Fatos & Fotos, special edition, June of 1962.

FOOTBALL • 65 between the daily life of society and Brazilian social thinking, as if the proximity to football, omnipresent in all social spheres, somehow made it less appealing FOOTBALL as an object of academic study. Perhaps for this reason Ivan Cavalcanti Proença8 ironically added PLAYERS his “Curriculum in football” to his book Futebol e Palavra [Football and the Spoken Word]. It shows the – 1942 uninterrupted trajectory of the author as a weekend player: “at the beginning of the 1940s, as a child, he Position: midfielder played at the Cerâmica Futebol Clube in Mangueira, Clubs: Bangu, Palmeiras that field which is still there today (…). Today, he plays Brazilian national team: 1965-1974 with the veterans of the Clube dos 30 in São Conrado, (10 games) on Sundays, and at Fluminense, on Saturdays.”9 The frequent practice of the author as a weekend player would legitimize the content of his work, or at least would show an intimacy of the author with the ball, i.e., “football art” in contemporary vocabulary, though the theme of his book. it does not always excite the coaches of national teams, sometimes more focused on results than on It is as though an abyss existed between football, daily creativity. interest of many Brazilians, and the thought on its importance. This dissociation occurs despite the efforts However, the field is not always so harmonious: of anthropologists like Roberto DaMatta10. In his opinion, though football helped reveal a “deep Brazil” and, for “if Oswald de Andrade11, who invented the modernist this reason, should interest Brazilian social thinkers, idea of cultural cannibalism, one day walked into the practice and theory are different. Read, for example, Corinthians stadium, he would have immediately the thoughts of José Miguel Wisnik6 on a book of realized that he was seeing the manifestation, the great importance about the centrality of football in the perfect expression, of everything he had been speaking formation of Brazilian culture: “It is not immediately about.”12 As we shall see further ahead, the symbolic evident to whom this book was written: generally, importance of football was not lost on the works those who live for football are not interested in of , the creator of “Pau-Brasil”. reading more about it than the news in a magazine DaMatta was right, though, in stating that if the rules of or newspaper, and those who dedicate themselves modern football were systematized in England, it was to books and speculations rarely know football from in Brazil that the English sport became a synonym of art close up.7” According to this view, there is a dichotomy and malandragem13. That is more or less what would

6 Brazilian intellectual and composer, teaches literature and theory at Universidade de São Paulo, the most prestigious Brazilian university. 7 WISNIK, José Miguel. Veneno remédio: O futebol e o Brasil. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2008, p. 11. 8 Brazilian intellectual and literature professor. 9 PROENÇA, Ivan Cavalcanti. Futebol e literatura. Rio de Janeiro: José Olympio, 1981, p. XIII e o. XIV. 10 Brazilian anthropologist. He studied typical Brazilian cultural phenomena such as carnival and football. Master and PhD in anthropology in Harvard University, he teaches at University of Notre Dame, in Indiana. 11 Writer and poet, Oswald de Andrade is one of the prominent figures of Brazilian modernism. 12 DAMATTA, Roberto. Entrevista: “O futebol é a maior escola de democracia”. Revista de História da Biblioteca Nacional. Ano 1, Número 7, January of 2006, p. 47. 13 Malandro can be used as a noun or an adjective, always referring to someone who is notably resourceful, smart and a little mischievous.

66 • FOOTBALL happen later to jiu-jitsu, the Japanese martial art that Europe bowed to Brazil was so transformed in the tropics by the Gracie family 7-2 that it is nowadays referred to as “Brazilian jiu-jitsu”. 3-1 The Brazilian appropriation of football and jiu-jitsu The injustice of Cette is an anthropological phenomenon of great interest, 4-0 and the success of this appropriation is evident in the 2-1 uninterrupted export of our best players and fighters. 2-0 The anthropologist also organized a book dedicated 3-1 to the theme, Universo do Futebol [Football Universe], And half a dozen on the Portuguese’s heads in which he explores the ritualistic aspects of football in Brazilian society. DaMatta understands football as Let us clarify the remarkable circumstances of this drama, and sees the actors, even if unconsciously, linguistic ready-made. In February of 1925, the Atlético portraying the relationships that structure Brazilian Paulistano team, with as captain, society. Therefore, in theory, the apparent started a series of friendly games in Europe. It started incompatibility between football and theory brings off triumphantly: on March 16th, the Brazilians easily to light a Gordian knot of great theoretical interest, beat a French team 7-2; it corresponds to the first verse because the problems that confront the football analyst of Oswald’s poem. The other verses also correspond “(…) are problems of our own society, which explains the to the final scores of the games during this trip. For difficulty in perceiving and discussing them.14” example, 4-0 was the result of the game against Bastidienne, from ; 2-0, the victory against In literature, it appears that the give-and-go with Berne Football Club. In the players from football also has its obstacles. Flávio Moreira da Paulistano also defeated the national team by 1-0, but Costa edited the essential anthology 22 Contistas em Oswald perhaps thought the result was not poetic and Campo [22 Short Story Writers on the Field], which ignored it. However, 2-1 represented two victories: brought together a majority of Brazilian authors, against the Havre Athletic Club and against a combined and included some important foreigners too, such team from Strasburg. In Portugal, an easy win: 6-0 as the Uruguayans Mario Benedetti and Horacio over the team of Casa do Pio — the Portuguese fans, Quiroga. Moreira da Costa stated in the anthology’s by all accounts, were silent. The only loss occurred introduction: “Brazilian authors have been accused of not treating the theme of football well, or of simply ignoring it.” A little further on, he acknowledged: “I have no easy explanation for this fault, almost in front of the , although I discard the FOOTBALL TRIVIA easy argument that blames it on a supposed artist’s elitism.”15 In the section “Postes da Light,” included The Colombian Rincón (Palmeiras and in Pau-Brasil, Oswald de Andrade proposed a poem Corinthians) and the Ecuadorian Reasco ready-made that might help us understand the issue. It (São Paulo) are the foreign players who have won is not a definite answer, but provides a fresh approach most Brazilian club championships: three each. to the problem. Let us first recall the poem:

14 DAMATTA, Roberto (org.). Universo do Futebol: esporte e sociedade brasileira. Rio de Janeiro: Pinakotheke, 1982, p. 22. 15 COSTA, Flávio Moreira da. “Jogo preliminar: ficção X futebol”. In COSTA, Flávio Moreira da (org.). 22 Contistas em Campo. Rio de Janeiro: Ediouro, 2006, p. 12.

FOOTBALL • 67 welcome. This is an early indication of something that would repeatedly happen with sports, more specifically South American football: the manipulation of national FOOTBALL teams, as was the case with the Brazilian and Argentine PLAYERS military dictatorships and the successes of 1970 and 1978 World Cups, respectively.

Paulo César Lima – 1949 The poet Oswald was correct: football was already so present in the daily imagination that transforming it into Position: midfielder a subject of fiction was a daunting task. So he came Clubs: Botafogo, Flamengo, Olympique up with a creative solution, transforming the results of Marseille (France), Fluminense, Grêmio, games into inspired verses. The difficulty is even greater Vasco, Corinthians because football also pervades the field of language: Brazilian national team: 1967-1977 “our lexicon is amplified by the profusion of terms (58 games, 8 goals) associated with mass sports, specially football (…).”19 In the aforementioned book by Ivan Cavalcanti Proença, a in the French city of Sète to a local team. However, this similar undertaking was brilliantly accomplished by using was an “honorable” loss: Cette 1-0. Freidenreich wrote: a player as protagonist: “we will now proceed to what we “That afternoon, the snow defeated us.”16 From a total consider fundamental, the very essence of this work: the of 11 games, they won nine games, lost once and drew vast vocabulary of the football player — the vernacular once. Even more importantly for the fan, the Brazilian ‘dribbles,’ the metaphors, the ‘illusions,’ the irony and team scored 30 goals, 10 of which were from the great the cunning, the creative power.” In a delicious, 30 page star, Freidenreich. The return to Brazil was triumphant: appendix, called “Mundão vocabular” [Vast vocabulary]20, they were greeted in various Brazilian states, culminating the author gives us moments of true genius. Let us look in a euphoric reception in São Paulo. Newspapers at two or three examples. incessantly proclaimed the superiority of Brazilian football and repeated with great enthusiasm the main “Butcher — violent player.”21 headlines of French newspapers: Brazilian players were really “les rois du football” [the kings of football]. Not “Little monkey, giraffe’s boyfriend — the player who surprisingly, politicians sought to take advantage of this tires himself out by going up and down the field, popularity: “President Artur Bernardes17 awaits you in attacking and defending (the little monkey goes up to Catete. He insists in shaking each player’s hand: ‘I want kiss his girlfriend, the giraffe).” 22 an autograph.’”18 The country was often in a state of siege during the Bernardes rule, so any distraction was “Pressure pan — Maracanã Stadium.” 23

16 I recommend looking at the Clube Paulistano’s website that contains complete information and photographs of the trip: http://www.paulistano.org.br/upload/editor/file/ livros/70anos/cap_04.pdf. For the player’s declaration, see page 68. 17 Brazilian President (1922-1926). His tenure in Office was marked by an important military uprising, known as the rebellion of the “18 do Forte”, and by the march of the “” — Captain Luís Carlos Prestes, a military man with leftist tendencies, leaded a march throughout Brazil to call attention to much needed social and political reforms. 18 Ibid., p. 62. 19 FEIJÓ, Luiz Cesar Saraiva. A linguagem dos esportes de massa e a gíria no futebol. Rio de Janeiro: Tempo Brasileiro — UERJ, 1994, p. 60. 20 PROENÇA, Ivan Cavalcanti. Op. Cit., “Mundão vocabular”, p. 92-122. 21 Ibid., p.92. 22 Ibid., p. 111. 23 Ibid., p.114.

68 • FOOTBALL These two factors alone, however, cannot explain the lack of give-and-go between football and literature. After all, nothing prohibits current, or even omnipresent, themes from being a source of inspiration for fiction; in fact, there is abundance of examples to the contrary. In the same way, football’s linguistic abundance should only enhance the exchange between both worlds. Let’s return to Flávio Moreira da Costa’s concern.

THE SPORTS CHRONICLE Two points might help clarify this discussion. First, the difficulty of using football in literature might be revealed in the nature of the sports chronicle. In other words, sports journalism is a plant of narratives, a nuclear reactor of stories. The “analysis” of most games is quickly transformed into a fable of individual trajectories: the athletes become characters in a story; the scenery is shared by the “actors” — the football players — and by the “spectators” — the fans. Will Ronaldo, the “Phenomenon,” be able to overcome adversity one more time? With a few lines, the reader is transported to the harsh childhood in Bento Ribeiro, the beginning of his career at the modest São

Cristóvão club because the family could not afford Conteúdo Expresso the transportation costs to Gávea, on to the absolute The victory in Sweden, in 1958, had implications beyond the world of sports. success on European fields. Following a terrible knee injury suffered on April 12th, 2000, when he played for still considered a duel between a great goalkeeper, Internazionale team, in Milan, it appeared as though Andrade, and the greatest player of all time, Pelé. The his career was over. But the other chapters of this goalkeeper promised to do everything possible to story, his triumphant return in the 2002 World Cup, stop the goal of the century, because he knew that if when he scored two decisive goals against Germany Pelé scored the much anticipated goal, Andrade would in the final, is an epilogue that few writers would have forever be remembered as the goalkeeper that allowed dared write, because it is so perfect as to be unreal. In the thousandth goal to happen. Again, as though a the words of a writer and fanatic Mexican fan: “Ronaldo talented playwright had written the moment, Pelé came back from a place from which appeared to be reached that extraordinary mark through a penalty no return. He learned a lot from pain, and enormous kick, the exact moment when the game comes to a stop was his victory.”24 And what about Pelé’s thousandth and the mythical confrontation between player and goal, in a game against Vasco da Gama, on November goalkeeper takes place. It was the perfect conclusion 19th, 1969? What happened that day at Maracanã is to a narrative that gripped the country, and even the

24 VILLORO, Juan. “Corea y Japón, primer Mundial del siglo XXI”. In Dios es redondo. México D. F.: Planeta, 2010, p. 196. FOOTBALL • 69 world. The image of Andrade hitting the ground after almost defending the penalty is unforgettable, and is FOOTBALL TRIVIA forever associated with the remarkable commemoration of the thousandth goal25. This capacity to create short Rogério Ceni, from São Paulo Futebol Clube, is narratives, often like short stories in the style of Dalton the goalkeeper who scored most goals in history. Trevisan26, certainly competes with one of the most He scored a total of 91 goals since 1997, 52 from traditional uses of literature: to tell stories, to stimulate free kicks and 39 from penalties. the reader’s imagination.

Second, the typical football fan is a natural storyteller, always bringing another creative component to the narrative. To drink a beer in the simplest bar in the smallest Brazilian town can easily be morphed into the archetypal storytelling around the fire. Every single Conteúdo Expresso Osmar Santos coined many expressions used in sports journalism.

25 A great report on the thousandth goal, with images and interviews, can be found at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF8EK7iOKQI&feature=related. 26 Brazilian writer, notable for his very short – and very interesting – short stories.

70 • FOOTBALL football fan has their own repertoire of stories, an authentic work-in-progress, because the fan of the rival team will undoubtedly have an opposing version of the same play, game and championship. Any worthy FOOTBALL fan possesses theories, devoid of doubt, regarding the end of the 1998 World Cup in France, or the removal of PLAYERS João Saldanha as the coach of Brazil’s national team in 1970. Of course, if Brazilian, the fan will have a ready Friedenreich – 1892 - 1969 answer regarding the 1978 World Cup game between Argentina and Peru. Not to mention the debate, always Position: forward supported by absolute facts and legitimized by creative Clubs: Paulistano, Santos, Flamengo statistics, about who is the best player of all time: Pelé Brazilian national team: 1914-1925 or Maradona? Neither one: Leônidas da Silva! The “Black (16 games, 5 goals) Diamond,” the “Elastic Man,” has incredible credentials: aside from inventing (or perfecting) the bicycle kick, he was the leading scorer of the 1938 World Cup, with eight goals, and every team he played for became a champion, universe defined by four lines. And, of course, the clichés including São Paulo, five times champion in the Leônidas created by football are also a fertile subject for literary era. However, due to World War II, the World Cups of adventures, as we shall see further ahead in analyzing 1942 and 1946 did not take place, and so Leônidas was the text of Luiz Ruffato. not able to shine again on the world’s main stage. If not for this... (and, in fact, such discussions are infinite.) GIVE-AND-GO Do not imagine, however, that it is all hardship and The combination of these two points can help explain the difficulties. The omnipresence of football in the mass apparent gulf between football and literature. Apparent, media should not be an impediment to stimulating it must be emphasized, because the give-and-go does narratives of pure fantasy, or critical analysis of happen, and works very well; however, it is as though these narratives. Otherwise, literature itself would the great football novel had not yet been written27. Juan not be possible, or would be limited to the fantastic Villoro provides an insightful evaluation: “the football literature genre! In an interesting reversal of this system is so efficiently and cohesively codified that apparent dilemma, Flávio Carneiro wrote a novel, in the it contains its own epics, its own tragedy and its own respectable epistolary tradition, that makes fun of the comedy. (…) This is one of the reasons why the subject problems presented in this short essay. The first letter of makes for better narratives than fiction. As football Prezado Ronaldo [Dear Ronaldo] reads: contains its own narrative, its original mysteries are necessarily brief.”28 Perhaps literature should enter the Dear Ronaldo Phenomenon, game with a diverse tactical plan, in order to mask the omnipresence of the English sport in daily life, or at least My name is Artur, but you can call me Penguin (I’ll find a way to suspend the excessive proximity to that explain later).

27 I considered discussing the memorable novel by André Sant’Anna, O Paraíso é Bem Bacana [Paradise is Quite Cool] (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2006), but I would not be able to do it justice within the confines of this essay. It will happen on another occasion. 28 VILLORO, Juan. “Campeón de invierno. La afición en primer persona”. Op. cit., p. 21, italics by the author.

FOOTBALL • 71 I play as a striker in the kid’s division of São Cristóvão, parentheses alludes, even if indirectly, to the issue mentioned here, that an initial separation is required I live in Rio de Janeiro, I am 12 years old, and I’m a for the give-and-go with football. At the beginning of huge fan.29 the text, in what passes for a “false epigraph,” Ruffato gives voice to a narrator who justifies his writing: The immediate identification with the idol, and the “to awaken memory, which continuously pales, we personal way of addressing him — the idol “can”, create this brief narrative.”30 This event, which must be if he so wishes, call the kid by his nickname; just as preserved in memory, is an authentic metonymy of the the kid adds “Phenomenon” quite naturally to the project’s ethics and of the author’s literary process. idol’s name — reveals difficulties the author will have to overcome to address this issue. Again, the On the one hand, it reiterates the decision of how question: how to create separation from this almost Inferno Provisório will be structured, by opposing two claustrophobic proximity? extremes: undying glory of the 1970 national team (as portrayed in the anachronistic emphasis on certain Let us look at the short story published in this sports transmissions) and the ephemeral existence of magazine. the “Botafoguinho” of Cataguases, a team that existed for only six months, but remained undefeated until its In his ambitious fictional project, entitled Inferno premature but predictable extinction. The vitality of Provisório [Temporary Hell], Luiz Ruffato included Ruffato’s work is based on the tension between these the text “Cicatrizes (uma história de futebol)” [Scars two poles, even though he chooses to emphasize a (a football story)]. Perhaps the subtitle between realistic depiction of poorer segments of society, or at least the unequal relationship between those poles.

On the other hand, the “false epigraph” is above all a linguistic fabrication, because it plays with football’s clichés while revealing what can only FOOTBALL be partially accomplished. This is central to PLAYERS understanding Ruffato’s work and his unique appropriation of the football universe. Let us, Romeu Pelliciari therefore, take look at these aspects. 1911-1971 If I’m not mistaken, there is a renewed concept of Position: forward realism at the core of the fiction of the author of Eles Clubs: Palmeiras, Fluminense Eram Muitos Cavalos [They Were Many Horses] 31; Brazilian national team: 1938-1940 it contains, so to speak, a linguistic realism.32 Using (14 games, 3 goals) simple words, his literature proposes a critical apprehension of reality through language, with special

29 CARNEIRO, Flávio. Prezado Ronaldo. São Paulo: Edições SM, 2006, p. 7. 30 RUFFATO, Luiz. “Cicatrizes (uma história de futeboll)”. Inferno provisório. Volume III. Vista parcial da noite. Rio de Janeiro: Record, 2006, p. 103. 31 RUFFATO, Luiz. Eles Eram Muitos Cavalos. São Paulo: Editora Record, 2007. 32 In the same way, Ana Miranda’s innovation in the historical novel has less to do with subject matter than the language she employed, because her most frequent theme is the change of , as spoken in Brazil, over the centuries. In other words, her projects explore the vital and complex path of a language through its historical avatars.

72 • FOOTBALL attention to the least favored in society. Ruffato’s of Eles Eram Muitos Cavalos and the project of Inferno realism is based in a friction between acute observation Provisório. This is like reuniting and of social dilemmas and invention of a radical linguistics. Guimarães Rosa in a peculiar point.35 Its complexity should be immediately obvious to the reader: even a superficial glance at the text reveals the I have not said everything about the “false epigraph” constant use of distinct graphic types, displaying the of “Cicatrizes (uma história de futebol).” It starts plurality of registries used by the author. as a mini-reversal of Grande Sertão: Veredas36. The

The two epigraphs chosen for Eles Eram Muitos Cavalos synthesize his project and can be seen as a concise exposition of the literary theory implicit in Ruffato’s work. The first epigraph, extracted from Romanceiro da Inconfidência, by Cecília Meireles33, and the second, from Psalm 82, present a moral imperative: to name the systemic anonymity of a certain group of people, practically reduced to the condition of animals (“They were many horses, / but nobody knows their names anymore, / their skin, their origin...”)34, or to denounce this type of anonymity, by revealing the hypocrisy behind it (“How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked?”). The epigraphs also present many possibilities of linguistic resources. If it is possible to poetically reconstruct a historical episode — i.e., if nothing prohibits this kind of poetic narrative from being essentially poetic, transforming the subject matter through language —, then why should one dogmatically affirm that all realism is narrow, naïvely considering language to be merely a transmitter of content? On the contrary, if linguistic invention does not exclude ethical obligations; and if, equally, the option for realism does not demand a transparent use of language, then the work of Ruffato forces us to think about realism as a critical form of apprehending reality; a form in which the content is always linguistically

structured — otherwise, his would stop being strictly Conteúdo Expresso literary. That is the internal link between the epigraphs Journalist João Saldanha set up the basis for the 1970 World Cup winning team – Brazil’s third World Championship.

33 Cecília Meireles (1901-1964) is one of the most important poets in . Romanceiro da Inconfidência is a collection of poems that narrate the history of the state of Minas Gerais. The “Inconfidência Mineira” is a relevant episode in Brazilian colonial history. In 1789, a group of Minas Gerais people, influenced by illuminist ideas and angry at Portugal’s taxation of Minas Gerais’ gold, defied the authority of the colonizer and tried to declare Brazil’s independence. The leaders of the uprising were imprisoned and Tiradentes, the most prominent figure, was hanged. Tiradentes is also known as “the independence martyr.” 34 I naturally associate the verses of Cecília Meireles to the project Inferno Provisório. As such, I use the reference to horses as a metaphor to the dehumanization of the characters portrayed by Luiz Ruffato. 35 Graciliano Ramos is a master of Brazilian realism, whose narratives focused strongly on social and political issues. Guimarães Rosa is widely known for his linguistic innovations. 36 Grande Sertão: Veredas is Guimarães Rosas’s masterpiece. FOOTBALL • 73 Acervo particular (Roberto Porto) In June 1970, Brazil became World Football Champion for the third time.

narrator repeats, as though carrying on an ongoing The same procedure is repeated again. The reader conversation: “Yes, the 21st of June 1970 became one is told about the coincidences between the dates: of the most important dates in Brazilian history.” the year of “1970 was also the year of the founding Everyone is aware that “(…) on that day the Jules Rimet and glory of the town of Cataguases’ ephemeral trophy became Brazilian forever, in that unforgettable Botafogo Football Club, aka “Little Botafogo”, which match against Italy (…).” Note the refined journalistic dismantled, undefeated (a rare occurrence in the clichés, evident both in the use of “noble” vocabulary annals of the British sport), after twenty matches — “unforgettable match”— and in the inverted syntax (…).”37 The sentence is built entirely by common of the phrase, also seen as a sign of linguistic, and journalistic expressions! Adjectives come before therefore social, superiority — “the Jules Rimet trophy nouns with a “poetic” intention (“rare occurrence”); became Brazilian forever,” instead of the more direct, the obvious choice of “precious” vocabulary (“in more prosaic: “the Brazilian team permanently won the the annals of the British sport,” “dismantled”); Julet Rimet trophy.” comparisons are as inadequate as the analogies

37 All citations are from page 103 and the italics are mine.

74 • FOOTBALL of Brás Cubas38, producing an equally comic effect, which is involuntary in the case of sports journalism (“1970 was also the year”). However, Ruffato’s style might reveal a creative side to journalistic FOOTBALL clichés: the frequent use of noble comparisons PLAYERS — almost always involuntarily comic, given the discrepancy between the terms — and the use of Leônidas da Silva a “rich” vocabulary, sometimes like that of Coelho 1913-2004 Neto39, suggest that perhaps these procedures had Position: forward the initial motivation of allowing the reader to take Clubs: Vasco, Botafogo, Flamengo, some distance, with the intent of neutralizing the São Paulo excessive proximity between football and daily life. Brazilian national team: 1932-1946 (15 games, 21 goals) Seen in this light, the clichés of sports journalism become authentic verbal resources, waiting for literary recycling40. That is what Ruffato achieved with what I have called a “false epigraph,” whose last sentence, already quoted, adds a new element hours of the morning, taking away furtively, benches to the complexity of the narrative. If, on the one and held babies, pots and runny noses, tables hand, he insists in using the cliché that supposedly and scabby heads, his blood, her furniture.”42 The ennobles language — “to awaken the memory, dehumanization of the children, almost like Fabiano which continuously pales (…)” —, he also breaks that and Sinhá Vitória’s kids with no names43, is suggested promise on the very first sentence of the short story: by the association with objects and by the use of the “Agitated, Mr. Miguel passed the dull hours smoking verb taking away. It also functions as a preface to rolled cigarettes.”41 So, the brief reconstruction of the the objectification of adult characters — which, if I short but triumphant existence of Botafoguinho do understand Ruffato’s text correctly, is at the center of Paraíso makes it less relevant than another memory, this “football story.” which is almost never retold: the memory of those who are (were) many horses. Countless people who, Mr. Miguel could no longer sleep because he like Mr. Miguel, are often kicked out of their homes realized his mistake. He had finally been able to without having any alternatives: “he swallowed the buy a small lot in the poorest section of Paraíso insults, collected his belongings, and left in the early [Paradise] and acquired a wagon to earn a living. He

38 Brás Cubas is the main character of ’s classic novel Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, in which Brás Cubas, already dead, writes his memoirs with ample use of irony and dark humor. 39 Henrique (1864-1934), Brazilian writer and professor. Allow me a digression regarding Coelho Neto’s emotional attachment to football. The writer was a passionate Fluminense fan and wrote an anthem for the club, though he could not compete with the brilliance of the multi-talented , who wrote the anthems of the main clubs from Rio de Janeiro. One of his 14 kids, João Coelho Neto, better knows as , became one of the greatest strikers in Fluminense’s history, and also scored the first Brazilian goal in the 1930 World Cup in Uruguay. 40 In some ways, this is one of the greatest strengths of André Sant’Anna’s novel, O Paraíso é Bem Bacana. The critical reutilization, using parody, of linguistic clichés — specially those from advertising — is the most defining characteristic of his work. 41 RUFFATO, Luiz. “Cicatrizes (uma história de futebol)”. In Inferno provisório. Volume III. Vista parcial da noite. Rio de Janeiro: Record, 2006, p. 103. 42 Ibid., p. 104, my italics. 43 In Graciliano Ramos’s classic novel Vidas Secas [Dry Lives], the characters Fabiano and Sinhá Vitória, a very poor couple who lost everything when a terrible drought affected their little farm, have a bunch of kids whose name is never mentioned in the novel. Ramos, as Ruffato, tries to show how extreme poverty objectifies and dehumanizes people. FOOTBALL • 75 would call it depression — and decides to start a football team: “Between cart runs, he ruminated, FOOTBALL TRIVIA daydreamed. Cataguases had its own Flamengo; Leonardo had Vasco; Granjaria had América. And The first Brazilian club to accept a black now, there’d be Botafogo too — from Paraíso!”47 player was Bangu, from Rio de Janeiro, at the This is an oasis in Mr. Miguel’s existence, because beginning of the 20th century, and Vasco da the fantasy that is destroyed by a harsh daily life Gama was the first club to field a predominantly returns with football, as does his self-esteem with interracial team. the victories of Botafoguinho do Paraíso: “Inflated, he instructed, cursed, provoked, warned, changed, planned on building a better living by transporting substituted, radiated enthusiasm. He arranged passengers of the numerous trains that passed matches and collected bets, then paternalistically through the region. However, he discovered that shared their expense allowance in noisy rounds of the passenger trains were going to be replaced by beer, cachaça and cigarettes. Strategist, they rode freight trains. So he would lose everything before their bikes in a tight group over to their opponents’ ever taking advantage of the “guaranteed here- pitches, unafraid and mean, brave and intimidating, to-there transportation service.”44 The long list of blackbirds, because they were fearless.”48 products that Mr. Miguel would no longer transport reveals another defining characteristic of Ruffato’s In his short story, Ruffato helps us understand the prose: chaotic listing of often incongruous elements, omnipresence of football and even its apparent in order to denounce the objectification of people rivalry with literature. The harsh daily lives of Mr. and personal relations and its dehumanizing effect Miguel and Creusa constrain their ability to dream, in an unequal society such as Brazil. Once again, to imagine, to conceive of a world that is different moral imperative and linguistic radicalism do not from the persistent hell in which they live in the exclude, or even oppose, each other. Paraíso [Paradise] of the poor.49 In this monotonous play of a dehumanized daily life, football may be Within this setting, the “football story” makes the possible exercise of imagination, the possible its entrance, initially through one of Mr. Miguel exercise of fantasy, of playfulness, as referred to by and Creusa’s sons, “little Paco, graceless as a Nelson Rodrigues. With the ball at their feet, little grasshopper people joked, and he’d bawl, then Paco, or Artur, the kid also known as Penguin, can accepted it. The scallywag’d chase a ball from dream of a future like Ronaldo, Romário, Robinho: dawn to dusk if he could!”45 Remembering his don’t they all have similar origins? To dribble, own past as a “centerfór raçudo”46 [gutsy center- even within the narrow confines of the improvised forward], Mr. Miguel overcomes his apathy caused football field, the precarious conditions of Paraíso, by the wagon event — if he were middle-class we is the anti-Orteguian50 formula made possible by

44 Ibid., p. 105. 45 Ibid., p. 110. 46 Ibid. 47 Ibid., p. 111, my italics. 48 Ibid., p. 112. 49 The author tells us that Mr. Miguel bought a plot in the “Paraíso dos pobres” [Paradise of the poor], next to the “Paraíso remediado” [Paradise of the better off], and a little further from the “Paraíso dos ricos” [Paradise of the rich]. 50 José Ortega y Gasset, Spanish writer and philosopher, author of the famous phrase “I am the sum of myself and my circumstances.”

76 • FOOTBALL football. Man is no longer the individual plus his skeletal hands skull-like faces, ‘What town is this, circumstances; after all, doesn’t the football star sonny?’ and his dry tongue was fear and terror, ‘Is reinvent his own identity — with a ball at his feet this São Paulo already?’”54. and a dream in his head? Homo ludens, no doubt: every amateur football player desires, deep down, To conclude, allow me a modest exercise of to rewrite his history, taking on the persona of the deliberate anachronism. Without knowing, little player he emulates. And every fan is an involuntary Paco found Fabiano, Sinhá Vitória and their two reader of Johan Huizinga51, and during 90 minutes kids, still with no names, on their way to the big he cheers for his team and rediscovers his humanity. city. Scared, he ran back to the bus, running away And if his team wins the game (one need not think of from the mirror of misery, looking for solace in the the championship), his self-esteem will shine, even temporary triumph of the football team which “fell if briefly. apart, undefeated (a rare occurrence in the annals of the British sport), after twenty matches from August If would I to end my reading of Ruffato’s work on a to December of that year.” lyrical note, I would have failed to draw attention to the story’s ending. Victorious in the “inaugural intermunicipal challenge”52 (the reader can hardly contain a smile at this passage), the players from Botafoguinho do Paraíso are incredibly happy and celebrate wildly. The triumphant return home, FOOTBALL however, is interrupted because the driver must stop PLAYERS to put some gas in the bus — note the progress: from wagon, which carries meaningless objects, Ademir Meneses to bus, which carries the Botafoguinho players to 1922-1996 unexpected triumphs, having as a leader a much changed Mr. Miguel, now an entirely different man Position: forward from the wagon driver. The team’s mascot, little Clubs: Sport, Vasco, Fluminense Paco, “Shy, to avoid having to pee near the older Brazilian national team: 1945-1953 guys he headed into the darkness.”53 Enveloped by (39 games, 32 goals) darkness, he hears voices and gets frightened when spoken to: “‘Where are we, sonny?’ asked a feeble voice, obscure accent; paralyzed his body froze,

João Cezar de Castro Rocha is a university professor and essayist. He studied in Brazil (UERJ) and in the United States (PhD in Comparative Literature at Stanford University). He is the author of four books and the editor of more than twenty titles.

51 Dutch historian and writer (1872-1945), is the author of Homo Ludens, a book that examines games as a cultural element, stating that the act of play is something innate to mankind. 52 Ibid, p. 112 53 Ibid, p. 114. 54 Ibid, p. 115.

FOOTBALL • 77 INTERVIEW

Two questions for Pelé

78 • FOOTBALL Texts from Brazil: In 1970 you have earned when I played. and hard seasons they play. had all the fame and titles But I don’t believe they are not Do you see this, in any way, any player could ever want. driven. What happens now is as a factor that contributes to Even so, you worked hard to that European clubs, where most diminish the importance of the make that your best World Brazilians play, provide more World Cup? Does playing for Cup. Currently, with much less visibility, greater fame and pay the national team still have the achievements – but with a lot a lot more. As a result, players same significance? more money – some Brazilian have less interest in playing for Pelé: The truth is that some players seem less driven and the Brazilian national team. coaches are considered more less interested in excelling in valuable than many players. their careers. To what causes TB: The most competent International tournaments among do you attribute this? coaches are currently working national teams have less value Pelé: In the first place, football with clubs and not with than before, the proof being that conditions have changed a lot; national teams. Besides that, national teams have only two without a doubt players today most players are exhausted at weeks to prepare their players for earn a lot more than they could the World Cup due to the long the World Cup. Conteúdo Expresso

FOOTBALL • 79 Foreign policy and football

By Vera Cíntia Alvarez “Football is Brazil’s best ambassador” Roberto Jaguaribe, Brazilian Ambassador to the United Kingdom

An idea that immediately comes to mind when reflecting about sports these days, and specially about football, is that we live in an immense globalized arena that is going through a process of accelerated integration, in which football is at the same time subject and object, stage and instrument.

80 • FOOTBALL Also, much to our joy, Brazil occupies a privileged is in fact at the epicenter of contemporary position in this complex scenario. Not only is Brazil a globalization processes (GIULIANOTTI & factual and symbolic leader in the most popular sport ROBERTSON, 2004). Its wide acceptance, without on earth, football, but it will also host the two most doubt, makes it one of the most successful and important sports mega-events of the next few years – the flexible elements of the globalization process. World Cup and the Olympic Games. These events offer It has the peculiarity of behaving both as an immense potential for the Ministry of External Relations instrument and a result, a tool and a stage. The of Brazil and, more than ever, it must be prepared to use so-called “global sport” is a fundamental cultural sport as a precise instrument of foreign policy. tool to understand humanity, since it is played in all countries, by all races and religions, and in Many studies define football as something that all continents. According to estimates, perhaps transcends the dimensions of a mere sport; it already outdated, more than 250 million people Acervo particular (Vera Cíntia Alvarez) Pelé visits Abuja in 2006, as part of the Rio 2016 Olympics campaign.

FOOTBALL • 81 Acervo particular (Vera Cíntia Alvarez)

are directly involved in the football industry in the world; around 1.4 billion people are interested spectators; and the World Cup final attracted something on the order of 340 million FOOTBALL television viewers.

PLAYERS The process of regional and international integration the world is experiencing is Garrincha – 1933-1983 inexorable and, as a result, markets created by football grow and multiply. From its origins Position: forward as a sport for the English elites to a form of Clubs: Botafogo, Corinthians, Flamengo mass entertainment, football is increasingly Brazilian national team: 1955-1966 becoming a galvanizing force in the global (50 games, 12 goals) market. Though it is hard to define precise worldwide numbers, sports represent one of the main segments in the production of goods,

82 • FOOTBALL financial transactions and services, only behind arms industry, oil, and tourism. FOOTBALL TRIVIA One can safely say that football is the market segment with greatest symbolic goods. Brazil, along with Spain, has the longest These goods are of a volatile nature, but of undefeated streak in official games. A total of 35 unquestionable importance to the economy. They matches without a loss between 1993 and 1996. originate in the games between large clubs, are transformed into mass spectacles, and followed up by sales of broadcasting rights through media. This generates other dynamic and rich markets such as that of players, the market for equipment and even the omnipresent fashion to them, establishing alliances that allow greater tendencies inspired by this sport. Some experts mobility of players, who are going to be sold, say that we are witnessing the transformation loaned or exchanged.” (RIAL, 2009). of professional football into a global network of “media-corporations-merchandising-markets.” In Brazilian formal economy, the sports industry (GIULIANOTTI & ROBERTSON, 2004). generates over $18 billion a year, and employs over 300,000 people – although analysts emphasize In this context, football clubs have become that these statistics are not dependable. The real corporations, known as global-clubs. Real numbers could be much larger. Brazilian players’ Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Manchester salaries abroad have become a source of income United, Inter, Milan, etc. are examples of for their families in Brazil – income that amounts clubs with fans all over the world and players to millions of dollars, according to the Central from different countries. They are present in Bank. The upcoming sports mega-events that different nations’ media, and have income Brazil will host will be seen by the whole world, streams that originate in all continents. But, and will illuminate, in the eyes of the foreign above all, they exist in the imagination of public, both our most superficial traits and our global population. Within this new system, deepest character, also multiplying the numbers clubs from cities with less relative political- pertaining to sports and markets they create. economic importance, such as , Revenue generated by this synergy will further Eindhoven and , can attain greater energize industries linked to football. According prestige than clubs from New York, , to FIFA, the 2014 World Cup will be the highest or Los Angeles. Much like global cities, income generating event in its more than 100 year- global football cities’ clubs are clusters inside old history. They expect the World Cup in Brazil to a system that extends beyond countries, generate 100% more income than the 2006 World losing its original links to territorial units Cup in Germany. within national borders. These global-clubs “are nodes of economic, human, media and Markets are created due to a remarkable aspect symbolic global flux. They are very different of the football industry: its capacity to galvanize from national-clubs of local reach, which were passions. Eric Hobsbawn (1983) used the term dominant in the 1980s, but are still connected “secular religion” to define football culture and

FOOTBALL • 83 ways, or to ignore their true economic and political needs. The new urban proletariat born with industrialization, having lost its ties with its FOOTBALL village of birth and leading an impersonal urban life, would, through football, acquire a new sense PLAYERS of identity, of belonging – and would also be provided with some release for its anxieties. One Pepe – 1935 or two centuries later, this analysis would also apply to urban masses of the post-industrial era. Position: forward However, this simplistic vision, that transforms Clubs: Santos sports into a means of manipulating the masses, Brazilian national team: 1956-1963 ignores the fact that football has evolved in (34 games, 16 goals) the course of the 20th century, alongside with societies that experienced the struggles to improve working conditions, under the flag of socialism, and the anti-colonialist movements, its rituals. Many authors have written on this which took advantage of its capacity to motivate. subject, but one of the most interesting analyses This theory also ignores the facts that in certain was made by Christian Bromberger (1998). In his societies, like Brazil, football helped shape the “map of ordinary passions,” Bromberger turned history of social inclusion and racial integration. his attention to a particular group of people Other thinkers, such as Eduardo Archetti, refute dedicated to activities that are able to generate simplistic theories such as the one that depicts strong emotions. In a list of five groups, the football as a means for “manipulating the third one is comprised of specialists and fanatics masses:” “Football is neither a ritual of open of sports events, those who are daily involved rebellion nor the much-mentioned opium of the with the emotions generated by “le football, la masses. It is a rich, complex, open scenario that bagatelle la plus importante du monde” [football, has to be taken seriously” (1992). the most important triviality in the world] (BROMBERGER, 2004). According to Bromberger, Football is a central concern to sociologist Norbert this passion has been transformed, in a century, Elias (1995), a key name in studies about the into “a planetary passion.” social significance of sports. Elias sees football as part of what he calls “the civilizing process,” Football has become a common culture, a “língua in the sense that the game provides a safe franca” of the world, a social-ethical system escape hatch to potentially destructive human understood by everyone, a bridge over regional impulses. Football is, in his opinion, one of the and generational gaps. For this reason, it has most important forms of control, regulation and become a subject of interest for sociologists administration of emotions in the daily lives of and anthropologists, as a metaphor for various modern societies. As a metaphor for ritualized human issues. Football has been mistakenly battle, it is a fundamental element in maintaining blamed for generating some kind of “false class peace in modern societies. If not for football, we conscience” in the masses, allowing them to would have even more wars and conflicts, Elias be manipulated to think and behave in desired would say.

84 • FOOTBALL The American anthropologist Janet Lever, aligned with Durkheim’s structuralism, argues that football promotes social integration exactly because it ritualizes conflict: “By giving dramatic expression FOOTBALL to conflicts between groups and regions, football confrontations sustain traditional pluralism and PLAYERS counter cultural homogeneity while accentuating the wholeness of the social system.” (ARMSTRONG Vavá – 1934-2002 & GIULIANOTTI, 1997). Position: forward In fact, football has rituals that are similar to those Clubs: Sport, Vasco, Atlético Madrid, of a church: protagonists obey a rigid hierarchy; Palmeiras there are conventions and taboos; the most Brazilian national team: 1955-1964 important football event, the game, happens within (13, games, 14 goals) a closed space, where there is a pitch, equivalent to an altar; the language is specific and there is something liturgical about its calendar; there is a moment of retreat before the game, which excludes the opposite sex; and the final result can lead to reflection and introspection if mistakes were made, followed by contrition, or to moments of glory and gratification – eternal for some, as Pelé would say.

What cannot be denied is that football, beyond ritual and mythology, has played a role in educating individuals, given the rules and discipline it imposes. once said: “Everything I know for certain about men’s morals and obligations I owe to football.” And the anthropologist Roberto DaMatta stated that the best democracy teacher in Brazil is sport, specially football: “Football was brought to Brazil by a highly democratic English society, and if we look closely at this sport, we will note that victory is not synonymous with superiority. Losing is not predestination. Football teaches, in a curious manner, that winner and loser always exchange places.”

It is already commonplace that football has

always been used as a political and diplomatic Acervo particular (Vera Cíntia Alvarez) instrument. One of the most interesting studies “94 World Cup”, painting (oil on canvas) by the author.

FOOTBALL • 85 on this issue was conducted by Paul Napolitano of the importance of international tournaments in (2009), who showed the interconnection between promoting state’s interests, visibility and prestige. politics and football promoted by Italian and That evolution goes from the 1920s, when the English governments in the 1930s. As Italy gained sport was played in elementary schools, to the prominence in the European political scene, it 1930s, when the sport became a formidable also became a threat to English hegemony in vehicle for propaganda. The results of these football. According to the author, this threat games reflected more than its players’ athletic to the British football hegemony represented abilities: they represented the quality of a socio- also the threat Italian fascism posed to British political system. democracy. As proof of that, the author points that both governments developed public policies Without any doubt, academic discussions about regarding sport so as to further their foreign how national governments have historically policy objectives. It is clear that the importance appropriated sports to promote policies, both of football to fascist politics was part of a wider internal and external, became common place. global tendency in the 20th century, as evidenced Today, policies conductive to success in sports by the use of sports by Nazism propaganda, and are seen as vital to national interests, either by later, by communism. However, an analysis of creating consensus and conferring prestige to three emblematic games of that era shows how, political systems, or used as a diplomatic tool to in the calciatori in camicia nera’s Italy [players in guarantee peace, or even to strengthen national black shirts’ Italy], development of sports policies identity, as happened in Africa, where in many moved from emphasis on physical performance, cases tribalism can only be overcome by forging linked to the idea of eugenics, to understanding unity around a national team.

In Brazil it was no different. Until the 1930s, football was an amateur sport limited to recreational purposes (at least officially, because in practice there was something called brown FOOTBALL TRIVIA amateurism, under which players received gratifications). Transformation of the sport is the Brazilian coach and the beginning of its democratization – a with most international games. He has coached process that includes acceptance of black and 232 games for the national teams of Brazil, poor players in big teams – occurred alongside Kuwait, , Saudi Arabia professionalization, in 1933. From then on, through and South Africa. the Vargas1 era, football became permanently associated with our national traits. Gilberto Freyre2

1 Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (1882 -1954) was the president of Brazil from 1930 to 1945 and from 1950 to his suicide in 1954. His government brought about social and economic changes that helped modernize the country. Although denounced by some as an unprincipled dictator, Vargas was revered by his followers as the “Father of the Poor,” for his battle against big business and large landowners. His greatest accomplishment was to guide Brazil as it weathered the far-reaching consequences of the Great Depression and the accompanying polarization between communism and fascism during his long tenure in office. 2 Gilberto Freyre (1900-1987), sociologist. Casa-Grande & Senzala [Master’s House & Slave Quarters], published by Gilberto Freyre in 1933, is one of the key books to understand the cultural formation of the Brazilian people. Freyre was the first important author to praise African heritage and to associate positive traits to miscegenation. Freyre is criticized, though, for presenting a romanticized version of the miscegenation process, lacking to emphasize the violence black and indigenous women were subjected to in Brazilian patriarchal society – and, specially, in the miscegenation process.

86 • FOOTBALL associated Brazilian football, with its swing and exuberance, to an ideal kind of Brazilian: versatile, clever, malandro3, capable of humiliating European rationality with humor. FOOTBALL Freyre adapted to the tropics the theory of the civilizing nature of football: he stated that PLAYERS irrational elements present in Brazilian cultural formation, which might have resulted in urban Amarildo – 1939 banditry, were contained and channeled through football in characteristics associated with Position: forward “malandragem.” This is a notable and classic Clubs: Flamengo, Botafogo, Milan, Gilberto Freyre quote: Fiorentina (Italy), Roma, Vasco Brazilian national team: 1961-1966 The Brazilian style of playing football seems (21 games, 8 goals) notably different from the European style, given the elements of surprise, cunning, shrewdness, agility and, at the same time, the individual brilliance and spontaneity through which we see racial integration, players, full of dribbles and original moves, the best example of which, in the art of politics, was today is nothing but a myth6. In Europe, Nilo Peçanha4. Our passes, our runs, our feigns, our specially in France, this myth would find ornate ball handling, resembling dance or capoeira a translation in the discovery of exotic movements, define the Brazilian style of playing enchantments: this was the era of the football, this style that makes the game invented ‘crazy years,’ of the Ballets nègres and by the English, and played by Europeans in such Josephine Baker, the invention of in an angular fashion, look smoother and rounder. All the United States and chorinho in Brazil, of this appears to express in a very interesting way played by blacks, who could now justify for psychologists or sociologists the flamboyant their musical evenings against suspicions mulatto5 and, at the same time, the malandro that regarding drumming; this was the period is present in everything which asserts the true when anthropologists and artists went on Brazil. (FREYRE, 1945, p. 432). expeditions to Africa, in search of face masks, sculptures and shapes that would feed the Perhaps this analysis of Brazilian football nascent modernism. players, described as having special physical abilities, capable of avoiding clashes between The enchantment with the creative, South

3 Malandro means someone who is street-smart, resourceful, irreverent, convincing, playful, mischievous. Many times it is a noun/adjective associated with the so-called “Brazilian way”. 4 Nilo Peçanha (1867-1924) became President in 1909, when President Afonso Pena died. He was the only black (mulatto, actually) President Brazil ever had. 5 Gilberto Freyre’s writings about Brazilian football have a common thesis: the integration of races produced in Brazil a unique kind of player, the flamboyant mulatto. This was the synthesis of our social democracy: “miscegenation happened so extensively here that it has corrected the social distance that would otherwise have remained between the master’s house and the slave’s quarters.” The quote below, typifies his thoughts on miscegenation, social democracy and football in Brazil: A new and unmistakable Brazilian style of football has just been defined, and this style is an expression of our mulatto way, quick to assimilate, dominate, break into dance, curves or songs, transforming the angular European or North American techniques to our liking, whether in game or architecture. Because this is our mulatto way – psychologically, to be Brazilian is to be mulatto – to be Dionysian and an enemy of Apollonian formalism. 6 Brazilian players have been widely criticized for no longer playing “the beautiful game”, for privileging efficiency over inventiveness.

FOOTBALL • 87 American way of playing football was born when to keep it for another four years seemed an Uruguay won the 1930 World Cup. At that time, intolerable anathema. Brazil was just another team, and the loss of the 1950 World Cup, in Maracanã Stadium – The wait until the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, which had been specially built to host Brazil’s which for Brazilian fans was painfully long, victory – threw the country into gloom and allowed Brazilian football talent to be exhibited reaffirmed Uruguay’s glory. It has been said of throughout the world, through some famous the Uruguayans that playing football was like “trips,” such as Santos’ trip to Africa. Another a second nature to them. It was only in 1958, long drought occurred between 1970 and 1994, with Didi and the kid called Pelé, that Brazil was even though this period revealed one of the finally included among the best. In 1962, with yet sharpest and most extraordinary national teams, another victory, the Brazilian team started an era the 1982 team of Zico and Falcão. In 1994, one in which we believed the trophy would always more victory, and finally we won the fifth World be ours, and the idea that we would not be able Cup championship under the command of coach Conteúdo Expresso Football is present in every aspect of Brazilian life.

88 • FOOTBALL Felipão in 2002. This trajectory gave Brazil a equivalent to the white peace flag. This thought permanent place in the world’s collective memory. was made concrete with President Lula’s decision, alongside with Minister of External Relations Celso In Brazil, football is much more than a sport, Amorim, to promote the so-called Peace Games in having established a symbiotic relationship Haiti, in 2004. Conceived as a humanitarian act, with the population – this population formed the game was above all a diplomatic tool, with by people from all corners, as potential to contribute, as it did, to efforts that once said – and the way it sees itself and its were being made by the Brazilian armed forces to place in the world. Here, words and expressions peace keeping in that country. used in sports are commonplace in political and economical discourse. Who hasn’t heard The thesis “Esporte, Poder e Relações that an ex-future secretary was kept “on the Internationais” [Sports, Power and International bench”, or that the economy might end up in Relations], by the diplomat Douglas Wanderley “second league”, among so many aphorisms de Vasconcelos (2008), served to provide the used by each and every Brazilian? Brazil is the theoretical basis for the decision to create, in only country to win five world championships, January 2008, the General Coordination of Sports the only country to have participated in all World Exchange and Cooperation (CGCE). The new unity Cups, the country that has led the FIFA ranking created by the Ministry of External Relations is part for longest in the last decades, and whose of a strategic vision that explores the possibility players have most often been considered the of expanding political and diplomatic benefits best in the world. If football is an instrument in derived from sport as a means of developing and the construction of national identities, in Brazil’s projecting Brazil’s image as a protagonist on the case it is also, fundamentally, the fingerprint of international scene. It is another tool to be used by its international identity. There is a spontaneous the country, often associated with the excellence identification with the “sporting personality” of its football-art. of Brazil, which transforms Brazilian football into an international brand with great market Since CGCE started operations in January of value. As they say, “if fashion is French, design 2008, the “CG-Bola,” as the students at the is Italian and ‘way of life’ is American, then Instituto Rio Branco [the Brazilian diplomatic football is Brazilian.” academy] humorously nicknamed it, has opened a Pandora’s box: requests for bilateral meetings FOOTBALL AS A THEME IN and multilateral forums concerning sports have BRAZILIAN INTERNATIONAL POLICY experienced exponential growth. For the Ministry Any reflection on possible connections between of External Relations, promoting foreign policy football and diplomacy was forged and matured through sports means exploring a new frontier within the context above mentioned. The memory and developing a new interface, meant to go even of the Santos’ trip to Africa, which paralyzed a war farther than our players. and mitigated racial conflicts, sparked the idea that Brazilian football is a strategic product in In contrast to the G-8 group, formed by the social communication and marketing campaigns. world’s richest countries, the G-20 group of A foreign journalist once observed that Brazil’s developing countries was born out of the needs yellow shirt, used in all corners of the world, is the imposed by a new international scene, where new

FOOTBALL • 89 and emerging players sought to have a stronger harmony in Brazil – and perhaps elsewhere –, voice. One can only hope that initiatives such football also has something to offer to the world as the creation of G-20 will be able to reshape of international relations: it can function as an international relations, bringing a new discourse, instrument of foreign policy, a means of social and new attitudes and new ideas to the central stage. cultural interaction between different peoples and The idea is that a more active participation of cultures, a brand new tool of diplomatic action and countries like Brazil might promote a greater contemporary diplomatic thought. degree of democratization in international relations and multilateral organisms, such as the To summarize, just like football is local and (UN), the International Monetary international at the same time, it is an individual Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization (WTC) passion, but, within the context of globalization, it and the World Bank. is also an important tool in international relations. Given its connection with social inclusion and the The most successful foreign policies serve feeling of identity and belonging of a group or a national project of social and economic nation, football is able to project each country’s development, while also respecting other international profile, and that profile is a defining countries and their national projects. If it is true element in relations between countries. In a that the early pastime of English elites became moment when countries such as Brazil, China working classes’ passion and created a new path and India start to seek a higher profile on the for social inclusion, also contributing to racial global scenario, more than ever it is necessary to continue to include sports in the existing repertoire of tools to achieve peace, peaceful solution of controversies, social mobility and development. What this article tries to show is the importance of validating a new element in creative foreign policy, FOOTBALL one that focus on cooperation instead of military PLAYERS or economic-commercial aspects.

Football games, either played at home or Pelé – 1940 abroad, have helped create the myth of Brazil’s special distinction. Media coverage, from the Position: forward invaluable articles by Mario Filho7 in the Jornal Clubs: Santos, Cosmos dos Sports, in the 1940s, to current day sports Brazilian national team: 1957-1971 journalism, has been a key element in forging (96 games, 77 goals) the idea that Brazil is a “craque” [very skilled player]. This notion is an indelible element in the way Brazilian’s perceive themselves as a nation.

7 Journalist Mario Rodrigues Filho(1908-1966) was the owner-director of the Jornal dos Sports, that became one of the most prestigious sports publications in the country ever. As such, he exerted great influence over sports and sports journalism. The respect he attained not only in sports, but also among politicians and intellectuals, allowed him to act decisively in the politics of promoting and professionalizing football. The Maracanã Stadium’s official name is “Journalist Mario Filho Stadium”.

90 • FOOTBALL The perception among Brazilians that we “are the country of football” is beneficial to Brazil’s collective unconscious: it portrays the idea of a FOOTBALL TRIVIA happy country. The efficiency and happiness of the Brazilian team reflect an image of a Brazil The forward José Altafini, known in Brazil as that works, a country that is not the “mongrel” of Mazola, is the Brazilian with the greatest number Nelson Rodrigues’8 famous quote9. This idealized of games for two different national teams. He self-image might be only a myth, but myths, played eight games for Brazil (1957–58) and six ideals and heroes are the stuff that propel a for Italy (1961–62). country forward.

Vera Cíntia Alvarez. Studied philosophy at the University of São Paulo from 1976 to 1980, and began her diplomatic career in 1981. Upon her return from Tokyo, where she served from 2004 to 2007, she was promoted to career Minister and was responsible for structuring the General Coordination for Sports Exchange and Cooperation (CGCE). CGCE’s objective is to promote cooperation in the field of sports, and to use sports – specially football – as an instrument of social inclusion and development, and as a tool to build bridges and foster relationships with other countries, specially with developing ones.

Bibliographic references:

• ARCHETTI, Eduardo. “Argentinean football: a ritual of violence?”. In • GIULIANOTTI, Richard & ROBERTSON, . The Globalization of International Journal of the History of Sport v.9 n.2, 1992. Football: a Study in the globalization of the “serious life” –, The Brithish • ARMSTRONG, Gary & GIULIANOTTI, Richard. “Introduction: Reclaiming Journal of Sociology, 2004 – volume 55, issue 4. the Game, an introduction to the Anthropology of Football”. In Entering • HOBSBAWN, Eric & RANGER, Terence (Ed.s), Inventing Tradition. the Field: New Perspectives on World Football. Berg, 1997, Oxford, NY. University Press, Cambridge. 1983. • BROMBERGER, C. (Org.). Passions ordinaires: du match de football au • NAPOLITANO, Paul. International Football and International Relations: concours de dictée. Paris: Bayard, 1998. Football as Foreign Policy between Italy and England, 1933, 1934, and • ______. Football: la bagatelle la plus sérieuse du monde. Paris: 1939. Thesis presented at the Department of Comparative History, Pocket, 2004. Brandeis University, 2009. • DA MATTA, Roberto. Inteview “Futebol é o maior professor de • RIAL, C. S. “Porque todos os ‘rebeldes’ falam Português? A circulação democracia”, by Simone Barreto, during the launching of A bola corre de jogadores brasileiros/sul-americanos no exterior, ontem e hoje”. In mais que os homens, DA MATTA, Roberto, na 4ª Bienal do Livro de A produção das Mobilidades – Redes, Espacialidades e Trajectos, edited Campos em 29 de março de 2010. by Renato Miguel do Carmo e José Alberto Simões, 2009: 203-224. Lisboa: Imprensa de Ciências Sociais – ICS. • ELIAS, Norbert & DUNNING, E. Desporte y Ócio en el Proceso de Civilizacion. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1995. • VASCONCELOS, Douglas Wanderley. Esporte, Poder e Relações Internacionais. Brasília: Fundação Alexandre de Gusmão, 2008. • FREYRE , Gilberto. Sociologia. Rio de Janeiro: José Olympio, 1945, p. 432.

8 Nelson Rodrigues wrote chronicles about football to magazines and newspapers. As a playwright, Nelson was a skilful chronicler of Brazil’s urban characters in the 1940s and 1950s, depicting in a very interesting and ironic way the contradictions and false morality that were inherent to apparently perfect middle-class Brazilian families. 9 (…) The pure, plain truth is this: any Brazilian player, when freed from his inhibitions and in a state of grace, is something unique in fantasy, improvisation, invention. To summarize: we have too many skills. Just one thing gets in the way and, at times, neutralizes these qualities. What I’m talking about is what I might call our “mongrel complex.” By “mongrel complex” I mean how Brazilians place themselves in a position of inferiority regarding the rest of the world. This happens in all areas and, above all, in football. To say that we consider ourselves “the best” is a cynical lie. (…) In the already mentioned embarrassment of 1950, we were better than our adversaries. Besides that, we only needed a draw. So — we lost in the most abject manner. And for a simple reason — because Obdulio kicked us about, as if we were mongrels. I tell you — our national team’s problem is not football, technique, tactics. Not at all. It is a problem of faith. Brazilians need to believe they are not mongrels, and that they have football in excess, to display here, in Sweden. (Manchete Esportiva, 05/13/1958). Nelson Rodrigues’ “mongrel complex” theory was developed in light of the 1950 World Cup defeat, when Brazil needed only a draw to win the Cup but was defeated by Uruguay in Maracanã’s pitch. The episode caused a kind of national trauma, and has been much discussed and analyzed afterwards.

FOOTBALL • 91 Brazilian south-south cooperation in sports

By Marco Farani

Sustained economic growth, political stability, and development of national public policies have allowed Brazil to gradually reduce its regional and social inequalities, creating a platform for a more proactive international participation, based on sharing its successful experience and knowledge in development.

92 • FOOTBALL Acervo particular (Vera Cíntia Alvarez) Exhibition match between Brasília and Botswana teams, promoted by Brazilian Ministry of External Relations in 2008.

On the one hand, Brazil’s assertive developing countries and its commitment participation in the international arena is to peaceful solution of controversies – based on a long exercise in learning, gained have favored the expansion of Brazil’s through joint projects using foreign know- South-South cooperation. The sum of how. International cooperation slowly these factors, along with the availability of resulted in the creation of model entities in knowledge and technologies that can easily the country, which, at a certain point, were be adapted to other countries’ conditions, able to offer Brazilian technical expertise transformed Brazil into a global reference to other developing countries. On the other in the field of international cooperation for hand, Brazil’s comparative advantages in development. international joint projects – geographical position, cultural and linguistic heritage, social Within this context, in 2003 President Lula and economic challenges shared by other instructed the Ministry of External Relations

FOOTBALL • 93 has sought to implement, starting in 2008, a new strategy for South-South cooperation, prioritizing structural projects instead of FOOTBALL automatically reproducing traditional models that focus on specific areas. Structural PLAYERS projects offer various advantages for Brazilian cooperation – and, mainly, for the beneficiary Jairzinho – 1944 countries –, given that they have greater social and economic impact and are more sustainable. Position: forward Clubs: Botafogo, Olympique Marseille, Brazil maintains technical cooperation Cruzeiro, Portuguesa relationships with countries from Latin America, Brazilian national team: 1963-1974 the Caribbean and Africa, while participating in (81 games, 33 goals) specific projects in other continents. However, operational costs of Brazilian cooperation are reduced, because programs are carried out, in most cases, by specialists made available to expand horizontal technical cooperation1, by Brazilian public institutions. ABC has been perceived as an important instrument for the increasingly establishing links with civil society, strengthening of relations with other developing in order to amplify opportunities for Brazilian countries, in alignment with Brazil’s commitment horizontal cooperation. to take on greater international responsibilities. The expansion of Brazilian embassies abroad is ABC is currently involved in 563 South-South a step towards the success of this strategy. projects and activities of technical cooperation, working with 58 developing countries in The strategy of offering technical cooperation is Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, centered on the improvement of our partners’ and Oceania. Brazilian bilateral South-South institutional health, a fundamental condition technical cooperation focuses on agriculture, for any successful and real transference and food safety, professional training, education, absorption of knowledge. South-South technical sports, electronic government, health, cooperation seeks no profit and has no commercial environment, information technology, workplace interests. Rather, it is based on the concept of accidents, urban development, biofuels, aerial “diplomatic solidarity” and seeks to share our transport, tourism, and justice. New areas successes and best practices in areas highly are being contemplated, such as government demanded by our partners, free of any imposition. agencies training in areas such as public finance, culture, foreign trade, and human rights. The Brazilian Technical Cooperation Agency [Agência Brasileira de Cooperação Técnica Although bilateral South-South technical – ABC] of the Ministry of External Relations cooperation is a priority for Brazilian foreign

1 Horizontal technical cooperation refers to joint cooperation projects involving two developing countries.

94 • FOOTBALL policy, ABC measures partnerships by their to contribute to the complete development of potential developmental impact. In light of school-age kids through sport activities in after- the comparative advantages that provide school programs. The underlying belief is that favorable conditions for Brazil in South-South sports education contributes to physical aptitude, cooperation, the country has been talking with mental health, inclusion and social interaction, international entities and traditional donor by developing cooperation and leadership skills, countries, trying to promote joint actions to help mutual respect, self-esteem, responsibility, developing countries. Furthermore, the challenge honesty, discipline and confidence. Among the of triangular cooperation2 is to integrate the greatest benefits achieved by this program are actions of the South-South cooperation with the higher rates of youths’ participation in schools North-South cooperation being implemented by and communities, drop in school absenteeism donor countries, using efficient mechanisms that rates, promotion of citizenry, drop in violence maximize the contributions of each partner. rates, reduction of ethnic and cultural strife and development of a sense of community. Specifically regarding sports, ABC has made efforts to address the growing international demand for cooperation. Contact with civil entities, football clubs and class organizations have been intensified with the intent of helping other countries with physical training, coaching FOOTBALL and referee training. In some cases, even young athletes travels to beneficiary countries, as well as PLAYERS young athletes are brought to Brazil for training. Tostão – 1947 In a similar way, there is a program of triangular cooperation for sports that involves UNESCO and Position: forward Brazilian civil entities, seeking to offer developing Clubs: Cruzeiro, Vasco countries projects to build, equip, and put into Brazilian national team: 1966-1972 operation community schools, while transferring (54 games, 32 goals) to public agents knowledge on educational practices after school hours.

Another important ABC initiative is to offer Latin American and African countries, in partnership with the Ibero-American General Secretariat, Marco Farani played in Europe’s semiprofessional a version of the “Programa Segundo Tempo” circuit as a youth, loves cinema and founded the Brasília Film [Second-Half Program], developed by the Brazilian Festival. As a career diplomat, he is currently the director of Ministry of Sports. This program’s objective is the Brazilian Technical Cooperation Agency from the Ministry not to form professional athletes, but to seek of External Relations.

2 Triangular cooperation involves a traditional donor country, a second country that usually provides know-how and the beneficiary country. A common example are projects for developing biofuel plants in Africa: Brazil provides the know-how and expertise and a donor country pays for part of the costs of the project.

FOOTBALL • 95 INTERVIEW

Sócrates

Sócrates is one of the greatest Brazilian football players of all time. He played

for the Brazilian national team 60 times, including the 1982 and 1986 World

Cups, and scored 22 goals. From 1978 to 1984 he played for Corinthians, a São

Paulo team, where he scored 172 of the more than 300 goals he scored during

his career. He also played for Botafogo from Ribeirão Preto, Flamengo, Santos

and Fiorentina, Italy.

96 • FOOTBALL Texts from Brazil: Your trajectory TB: Barcelona, a team that has great happiness to European was a bit different from most displayed an offense-oriented fans — are black, arabic, or of football players: you abandoned and joyful type of football, in mixed ethnicities. Even so, there another profession, medicine, to the best Brazilian tradition, are frequent displays of racism in become an athlete. How did you always chose our best players: Europe. How do you explain this come to this decision? Tell us a bit Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Romário paradox? about it. and Rivaldo. Today their Sócrates: The white elite, the Sócrates: No decision is as hard greatest star is Messi, from aristocracy, the bourgeoisie and as giving up the prospect of a Argentina. Is that because there their ancestors believe that the lifelong career for a big unknown. are fewer football stars in Brazil planet exists for the benefit of the Intuitively, I knew football held now than before? few. They think they are better and vast possibilities but it was as yet Sócrates: There are still many wiser. Wise, in my opinion, are undefined. Soon after, I realized new talents in Brazil. Paulo those who are learning and who the enormity of what I had in my Henrique Ganso, from Santos, is don’t believe they know everything. hands and worked hard to make one of them. He is someone who Fear of skin color is only surpassed sure it would actually happen. It’s a could only really play for a team in its stupidity by fear that certain question of opportunity and drive! like Barcelona. humans may carry DNA traits that represent the worst of humanity. TB: You were one of the central TB: The majority of the players Look at history and you will see characters in what became known who are successful in Europe that most tragedies were always as the “Corinthian democracy,” — and who therefore provide caused by non-blacks. a movement started by a group of players during the 1980s where the players themselves participated in decisions regarding acquisition of new players, rules for team get- togethers, etc. Could you tell us a little about that period? Sócrates: A place where the janitor has the same veto power as the mayor can only be a special place. That was Corinthian democracy.

TB: Where did the idea of writing a column about football in Carta Capital, a news magazine with an emphasis on politics and economy? Sócrates: I was invited by Mino Carta, who defined the editorial line of the magazine, as he had done with Veja and Isto É, when they were independent publications. Conteúdo Expresso

FOOTBALL • 97 Football in Brazilian music

By Assis Ângelo

Football and popular music, two of the most important Brazilian cultural manifestations, have been often associated. As a result, many popular songs have celebrated famous players, memorable matches or simply the passion for the most popular sport in the country. Since the first music recording, about one hundred years ago, football has inspired some of the most talented Brazilian composers, as can be seen in the following list:

98 • FOOTBALL Arquivo Assis Ângelo Since the beginning of the 20th century, football has inspired many popular songs.

FIRST PIECE OF MUSIC ABOUT FOOTBALL: FIRST MODA DE ABOUT THE THEME: “Foot-Ball,” by an unknown author, was released by “Futebol” [“Football”], by country singers Alvarenga, Grupo Lima Vieira & Cia. (Odeon Record), and recorded Ranchinho and Ariovaldo Pires (Capitão Furtado), around 1912. In the 1920s, the singer César Nunes also released in April 1936, by Odeon. recorded the song, to the rhythm of cançoneta. FIRST COMIC MARCHA TO TACKLE THE THEME, FIRST SONG ABOUT THE WORLD CUP: INTERTWINING IT WITH POLITICS: A cateretê song called “A Copa do Mundo” [“The “É Sopa” [“Piece of Cake”], by Eduardo Souto, also World Cup”], by Raul Torres and Serrinha, released released in 1936. in 1938 by Columbia.

FOOTBALL • 99 FIRST AND ONLY TANGO DEDICATED TO A BRAZILIAN TEAM: FOOTBALL TRIVIA “Fluminense,” by América Jacomino, o Canhoto [Lefty], released by Odeon.

Zagallo is the only Brazilian who has participated SONGS ABOUT THE BRAZILIAN NATIONAL TEAM, in world cups as a player and a coach of his own STARTING IN THE 1950s: national team. He played twice as an athlete • “Vingamos Maracanã” [“Revenging Maracanã”], (1958 and 1962) and three times as a coach by Denis Brean and O. Guilherme, accompanied (1970, 1974 and 1978). by Coro e Orquestra Columbia [Columbia Choir & Orquestra]; Conteúdo Expresso Lamartine Babo composed the greatest Rio de Janeiro football clubs’ anthems.

100 • FOOTBALL • “O Frevo do Bi” [“The Second Championship Frevo”], by Braz Marques and Diógenes Bezerra, with Jackson do Pandeiro; • “Pra Frente Brasil” [“Forward, Brazil”], by Miguel Gustavo, with the Demônios da Garoa; FOOTBALL • “A Taça do Mundo é Nossa” [“The World Cup PLAYERS is Ours”], by Maugeri Dagô and Lauro, with the Titulares do Ritmo. Rivellino – 1946

PELÉ IS THE MOST CELEBRATED PLAYER IN Position: forward BRAZILIAN POPULAR MUSIC: Clubs: Corinthians, Fluminense • “Pelé e o Brotinho” [“Pelé and the Cute Girl”], Brazilian national team: 1965-1978 by João Chamo and Souza Cruz, released by the (92 games, 26 goals) Carnaval label around 1958; • “Pelé, Pelé,” by Alceu Menezes, composed in 1959; recorded the following year by Orchestra e Coro, and released by the defunct RGE in January of that year; • “Camisa 10 da Gávea” [“Jersey Number 10 from • “Pelé,” by Oiram Santos; Gávea”], by Ben Jor. • “Ataca Pelé” [“Attack, Pelé”], by Tico-Tico; • “Marcha do Pelé” [“Pelé’s March”], by Paulo AMONG FOOTBALL TEAMS, THE MOST ACCLAIMED Borges and Magdalena Correia; IS THE SPORT CLUB CORINTHIANS PAULISTA; • “Pelé,” by Amasílio Pasquim and Caçulinha; • “Vasco x Corinthians,” by Baptista Júnior, who • “Rei do Futebol” [“Football King”], by Mariano recorded it himself; released in September of 1929; Nogueira; • “Corinthians x São Paulo,” by Nhô Pai e Nhô Fio; • “Pé de Pelé” [“Pelé’s Foot”], by Cambuí and Nhô Zé; • “São Paulo x Corinthians,” by Murilo Caldas; • “O Rei Pelé” [“King Pelé”], by José Gomes Filho • “Corinthians x Palmeiras,” by José Fortuna; (Jackson do Pandeiro); • “Campeão do 4o Centenário” [“Forth Centennial • “O Nome do Rei é Pelé” [“The King’s name is Champion”], by Alfredo Borba; Pelé”], by Jor. • “Corinthians, Campeão do Centenário” [“Corinthians, Centennial Champion”], by Billy PELÉ COMPOSED A FEW SONGS HIMSELF: Blanco; • “Em Busca do Penta” [“In Search of the Fifth World • “Campeão dos Campeões” [“Champion Among Cup”] (2002); Champions”], by Lauro d’Avila; • “Sou Brasileiro” [“I’m Brazilian”], with Flavinho • “Brasão Preto e Branco (Hino ao Corinthians)” and Edson, from the duet Edson & Hudson. [“Black and White Badge” (“Corinthians’Anthem”)]; • “Corinthians Religião” [“Religion Corinthians”], by ONCE THE “PELÉ ERA” WAS OVER, ZICO BECAME Padre Aparecido and Nélson Correia; THE PLAYER MOST CELEBRATED BY COMPOSERS: • “O Corinthians dando Olé” [“Corinthians Showing • “Saudades do Galinho” [“Longing for the Off”], by Bráulio de Castro e Castanha; Rooster”], by Moraes Moreira; • “Corinthians, Campeão de Amores” [“Corinthians, • “Galinho de Briga” [“Fighting Rooster”], by Fagner; Champion of Love”], by Geraldo Cunha, Antônio • “Brazuca,” by ; Albino e Osinete Marinho;

FOOTBALL • 101 • “Transplante Corinthiano (Coração Corinthiano)” OTHER GREAT COMPOSERS WHO WROTE ABOUT [“Corinthian Transplant” (“Corinthian Heart”)], by FOOTBALL: Manoel Ferreira, Ruth Amaral and Gentil Júnior; • Benedito Lacerda/ (“1-0”); • “Vai Corinthians” [“Go, Corinthians”], by • Wilson Batista/Jorge de Castro (“Samba Rubro- Oswaldinho da Cuíca and Papete; Negro”) [“Red & Black Samba”]; • “Corinthians, Alegria do País” [“Corinthians, Joy of • Noel Rosa (“Conversa de Botequim”) [“Bar the Country”], by Alto Zarim and Nelsinho Melo; Talk”]; • “Bandeira do Timão” [“The Big Team Flag”], by • Lamartine Babo (“Sempre Flamengo”) [“Always Elzo Augusto. Flamengo”]; • Antônio Borba (“Gol do Brasil”) [“Goal for Brazil”]; • Antônio Sergi/José Luiz da Silveira (“A Taça é Nossa”) [“The Trophy is Ours”]; • Lupicínio Rodrigues (“Grêmio Futebol FOOTBALL Porto-alegrense”); PLAYERS • Chico Buarque (“O Futebol”) [“Football”]; • Jorge Ben Jor (“Fio Maravilha”); Sócrates – 1954 • Sérgio Ricardo (“Beto Bom de Bola”) [“Beto Great Player”]; • Paulinho Nogueira (“O Jogo é Hoje”) [“Today’s Position: forward the Game”]; Clubs: Corinthians, Fiorentina, • Luiz Queiroga (“Escola de Feola”) [“Feola’s Flamengo, Santos School”]; Brazilian national team: 1979-1986 • Milton Nascimento/Fernando Brant (“Aqui é o (60 games, 22 goals) País do Futebol”) [“This is Football Country”]; • Baptista Júnior (“Futebol Complicado”) [“Complicated Football”]; • Zé Fidélis (“Vasco vs. Arsenal”); • Teddy Vieira/Zé Carreiro (“Bi-Campeão Mundial”) [“Twice World Champion”]; • Zé Fortuna (“Pelé e Rivellino”); • Jacob do Bandolim (“Vascaíno”) [“Vasco Fan”]; • Gilberto Gil (“Balé de Bola”) [“Football Ballet”]. Conteúdo Expresso Another reputed musician who composed football clubs’ anthems was Lupicínio Rodrigues.

102 • FOOTBALL Assis Ângelo is a journalist who studies popular culture and researches the theme of football in popular Brazilian music. He was musical consultant for the film “Pelé Eterno” [Eternal FOOTBALL TRIVIA Pelé], directed by Aníbal Massaini, and for the musical series Som da Terra [Sounds of the Earth] (Warner/Continental). He Ten Brazilian players have scored in World Cup is the author of the book A Presença do Futebol na Música finals. They are: Pelé and Vavá (3 goals); Ronaldo Popular Brasileira [The Presence of Football in Brazilian (2 goals); Friaça, Zagallo, Zito, Amarildo, Gérson, Popular Music] (1994, Metrô/SP). Jairzinho and Carlos Alberto. Conteúdo Expresso Pixinguinha composed the choro “1-0”, based on a victory against Uruguay in 1919.

FOOTBALL • 103 Football, field of words

By Leonel Kaz

History, no doubt, can be narrated through stories of great characters, memorable events or solemn dates. There is another kind of history that is also narrated through words: the one that is told through habits, mannerisms, attitudes, attire and gestures, year by year, decade by decade. Football, this land that exists within us and that arrived in Brazil at the end of the 19th century, might be the stage of one of the few battles Brazilian people fought and won. Brazilians made their own and transformed it into art and aesthetics.

104 • FOOTBALL Football was not given to us, it was conquered. It came earlier. This act was not driven by love of freedom; rather from Europe in 1894, by the hands — and feet — of than this, the oligarchs were no longer interested in Charles Miller, a Brazilian of British ascent. It was an paying for the maintenance of slaves, given the arrival of activity restricted to the wealthy. Miller, then at his European immigrants, who constituted a more qualified twenties, was the son of an engineer of São Paulo and cheaper labor force. As a result of the Lei Áurea, black Railway Company, the railway that connected São Paulo and nonwhites were thrown out on the streets, wandering. highlands to the coast. Now that slaves were free — or at least supposedly free — He introduced the sport, already popular in England, whites wanted to affirm their superiority, by showing that among his father’s Brazilian friends. Therefore, the teams although they had delicate bodies, they could be great that were formed had one distinguished characteristic: all Olympic athletes. Football, therefore, ended up playing players were part of the white and aristocratic elite. a part in the theory of “whitening” of the population, a common thought at the time, according to which the The country of capitanias hereditárias1 and sugar cane country would only be saved when the population became patriarchs was the same country of coffee barons, who whiter, and in the end, more European or “civilized,” as its had forced Princess Isabel to abolish slavery six years proponents claimed.2 Arquivo CR Vasco da Gama

Vasco da Gama’s team, in the 1920s.

1 At the beginning of its History, Brazil was a Portuguese colony. Members of the Portuguese elite received large amounts of land from the Portuguese Crown, mainly in the coast (Brazilian northeast), where they created a society based on large farms of sugar cane, slave work and patriarchal authority. Those large farms were inherited by the Portuguese master’s son, in a caste system that allowed almost no social mobility. 2 The theory of racial whitening, inspired by the ideas elaborated in Europe about racial determinism, was developed in Brazil mainly between the end of the Imperial regime (1889) and World War I (1914) by writers like Silvio Romero, Oliveira Vianna and Nina Rodrigues, and had significant influence on Brazilian immigration policies adopted during that period. The dominant idea was to attract European immigrants, so that they would “whiten” the nation with their presence and through miscegenation. FOOTBALL • 105 Brazilians of mixed races, common on the streets, could Brazilian population engaged in and won, based on the not be seen within the boundaries of football fields. Due acceptance of black athletes as professionals in the end to some legal maneuverings, until the 1920s blacks were of the 1920s. The sport became a rare collective activity prohibited of playing for, or even being fans of, football in which all Brazilians engaged. It is also one of the first teams. At that time, all teams had upper-class origins truly democratic arenas of the country, where skill and and English names, such as Sport Club Corinthians effort are more important than name or origin. Paulista and Fluminense Football Club. In Rio de Janeiro, Flamengo and Botafogo were started as teams In Brazil, people do not usually recognize public spaces — an elite sport at the time. However, the populace as their own. Brazilians look at streets, or any other watched from the walls of Guanabara Bay those elegant public space, with a certain disdain, as though it had white giants rowing with strength and determination. nothing to do with us: “It is the government’s business” Football, on the other hand, was played in silk clothes, we say. We observe everything from a safe distance, and members of “distinguished” society would watch it with the expectation that decisions will be made by from honor suites, where young ladies would even cover those in power — someone that, like an unpredictable their faces with veils. God, will act based only on his own judgment.

Initially the mass of ex-slaves could only watch these Aside from rare moments of public commotion, sports from afar, either from high up on far away hills, Brazilians have difficulty embracing the idea of or on low ground, behind fences. However, during the community. Unlike what happens in Lutheran societies 20th century, this population of observers made football like North America, where donating part of their its own, transforming it into a passionate triumph of belongings to society is a widespread behavior, in Brazil, every Brazilian. This might have been the great battle the dominant idea is that a simple prayer will redeem us, and we can then go back to committing our sins. This religious approach did not contribute to bring people together, in associations or communities with stronger ties. Football offers a contrary example. Today, any FOOTBALL football field provides an example of ethnic integration: 22 Brazilians, with various nuances of color and race, PLAYERS play together peacefully, providing observers with millions of possible interpretations to that phenomenon. Zico – 1953 In the context of football we feel proud to be Brazilian, or to become “Brazilians by accident,” as Mario de Position: forward Andrade3 put it to Drummond4 in 1927. Clubs: Flamengo, Udinese (Italy), Kashima Antlers (Japan) During elementary school we learn, bureaucratically, Brazilian national team: 1976-1989 the ethnic ingredients of our formation. Like one learns (72 games, 52 goals) chemical ingredients. Cafuzos are the result of mixing natives and Africans, mamelucos are a combination

3 Mario de Andrade (1893-1945) was a Brazilian modern poet, novelist and art critic, who engaged in the Semana de Arte Moderna de 1922 [Modern Art’s Week of 1922], the event that sets the beginning of Brazilian Modernism. Macunaíma (1928), an epic novel of the Brazilian anti-hero, is his most important book. 4 Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987), one of the best-known Brazilian poets, was also a chronicler and a short story writer. Amongst his main works in poetry are the books Alguma Poesia (1930), that sets the beginning of the second phase of Brazilian Modernism, and A Rosa do Povo (1945), a reflection over the social and political concerns of his time. 106 • FOOTBALL Agência Brazilian talent for football is reflected in the conquest of five World Cup titles. of natives and Europeans. If our schools do not value our origins, nor do they promote pride in integration, who would? Who studies any cultural heritage other than that of the white European? Who claims to be a mameluco, cafuzo, mulato, amerindian (except when applying for university quotas)? Anísio Teixeira, the most important Brazilian educator, theorized in the FOOTBALL 1930s that learning was acquiring “a mode of action:” “We do not learn an idea when we can formulate it, PLAYERS but when we make it our own up to the point that it becomes a part of our own organism.” To put it Roberto Dinamite – 1954 succinctly, Teixeira said we only learn what we practice. “School should be transformed into a center where Position: forward one does live and not a center where one prepares to Clubs: Vasco, Barcelona (Spain), life,” he concluded. Football, unlike the still dominant Portuguesa standard school model, is a place where one does Brazilian national team: 1975-1984 live — on the field, on the streets, in the stands and, (38 games, 20 goals) independent of physical location, in thoughts.

FOOTBALL • 107 We repeat the tale and delirium of football every time we talk about a game, whether it happened today or 50 years ago. It doesn’t matter if the game was watched FOOTBALL on TV, heard on the radio, or read in the newspaper. In the mind of the fan that imagines the story, it is as clear PLAYERS as daylight — although sometimes passed on from generation to generation. Football holds the power – 1960 of oral tradition, which has helped perpetuate stories and characters way before the invention of the printing Position: forward press or electronic image. The game makes us alive, Clubs: Guarani, São Paulo, Napoli (Italy) renews us, and pervades our emotional lives. Brazilian national team: 1982-1993 (60 games, 29 goals) Football is not always real. It is more of a chaotic reality. It is often a dream, a wish. The famous Pelé dribble on the Uruguayan goalkeeper Mazurkiewicz, during the 1970 World Cup, did not end in a goal. Would the moment have been more aesthetically pleasing if it had? Probably, it was precisely the restriction imposed to the ball by the goalkeeper, avoiding its entrance into the goal by a few centimeters, that eternalized the moment. In football, the goal does not always have to actually happen; it already exists in each fan’s imagination. Any Brazilian who has watched Pelé’s dribble has, to this day, the vain hope that the goal might someday happen.

Football is not always real because it is passionately experienced. This passion is nurtured by the narrative of the game, as much as by the event itself. Nelson Rodrigues famously said that “the Fla-Flu was born 40 minutes before nothing.” This sentence expresses the magical atmosphere that surrounds football. The narrative of the game redefines the experience, and stories are reinvented every time they are repeated. As proof that football is an entirely subjective experience, Nelson Rodrigues5 used to say that “normal and honest referees brings to the game nothing but deep boredom, and an irredeemable mediocrity,” and “only the cheating

Acervo particular (Priscilla Bueno) referee, the corrupt referee, can add a new dimension to Marcos Carneiro de Mendonça was the first goalkeeper to play for the Brazilian national team. football and provide it with a, allow me, Shakespearean

5 Nelson Rodrigues (1912-1980) was the most important Brazilian playwright from the 20th century. He was also a writer, a journalist and a passionate about football.

108 • FOOTBALL dimension.” Football stands beyond reality. As in the scene in the John Ford movie, The Man Who Shot Liberty Vance, where the old journalist tells the young reporter: FOOTBALL TRIVIA “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” The Brazilian player who participated in most Joseph Blatter, FIFA’s president, on a visit to the European cups was Roberto Carlos, with 141 Football Museum in São Paulo, said: “this is not a games for Internazionale, Real Madrid and museum about the game of football, but about what Fenerbahçe. Ronaldo and Jardel were the players is most important in this game: people who practice who scored most, with 36 goals each. it. This is not a museum; it is a place where one lives.” It is natural, therefore, to join the teachings of Anísio Teixeira to what Blatter said seven decades later: There is a ball on the Brazilian flag. “The place where one lives.” Football is the house And inside the hearts of every Brazilian. where we live, the field we conquered, that was not, Our football started with Charles Miller, as almost everything else, given to us or lost before it Son of English parents, who went to study in England, was given. As Fernando Pessoa6 once said, “to travel Then returned with a ball and a football manual. one need only exist. Travellers are travels. What we see is not what we see, but who we are.” Football is a Seven years before, imagine, great internal journey to who we are. Brazil had been the last country in the world to free slaves. Blacks and all shades of color were thrown out on the streets. In football we are more than players, we were On the other hand, the elite wanted to prove its worth. inventors. The creative genius behind dribbles And to show that interracial population who the boss was, like folha-seca [chip-shot], the chapéu [rainbow], who the best athlete was. the bicicleta [bicycle kick], is the same national inventiveness that created the Brazilian Baroque — The well-off took football for their exclusive use. our greatest cultural expression. The proof is that “the They played in silk clothes. ideal team of the 20th century”, as ideated by FIFA Watched by elegant people, in hats and top-hats. in 1998, includes four Brazilians: Garrincha, Carlos Arberto Torres, Nilton Santos and Pelé. The choice of Brazil was a divided country: on the one hand, those who these “11 Nobel Prize Winners” was not only based had everything. On the other, the barefooted, on skills, but also on what each one added to the who could only watch from faraway hills what happened sport. Garrincha is as important to football as Picasso in the stadiums. is to painting. Didi is to football what Stravinsky is to music. In football, we create new forms of art, an Fluminense was the first stadium built in Rio. unique language that adds not only to our history, A newspaper of the time described one game: but to the history of peoples from different eras and “This week it was a ‘match’ between Fluminense and countries. For this reason, our football is our history. América Football Club. These ‘footballers’, with elegant shirts and trimmed mustaches, presented themselves as true A video at the Football Museum narrates this saga in sportsmen. The well-dressed public, a kind of “poetic-prose:” comprised of families and gentlemen, applauded effusively.”

6 Fernando Pessoa (1988-1935) is a Portuguese poet and thinker. He is considered to be one of the greatest poets of Portuguese language — if not the greatest, alongside Luís de Camões. Besides his popularity among literary critics, Pessoa is also widely known and much admired by readers in every Portuguese-speaking country. FOOTBALL • 109 Arquivo Fluminense FC Fluminense’s traditional home stadium, Laranjeiras, opened in 1919.

Even the names were spoken in English. But the truth is that football needed to be reinvented. ‘Match’ instead of ‘jogo.’ ‘Footballer’ instead of And that is what happened: ‘jogadores.’ Very fancy, isn’t it? cities were getting bigger, the country was becoming All this to keep the masses out. industrialized. Fluminense’s goalkeeper, what an idol! Marcos Carneiro de Those of mixed race, the most humble immigrants, and the Mendonça, played with a thin purple silk band. How elegant! blacks started working in factories and shops in the cities. So? Well, after work they went to empty lots, from the factories to improvised fields, touching the ball with their feet with unparalleled skill and started to dribble, to invent... to excel. They could no longer be left out. FOOTBALL PLAYERS The clubs still insisted on keeping out the masses. How? The bylaws stated: “The presence of manual Bebeto – 1964 laborers is prohibited.” So, football could only be played by college graduates? Position: forward This would not work. Clubs: Vitória, Flamengo, Vasco, Deportivo La Coruña (Spain), Botafogo In 1927 all prohibitions were dropped Brazilian national team: 1985-1998 and the best players took to the field, (75 games, 39 goals) with no regard to background or birth. Football became the first battle

110 • FOOTBALL Leonel Kaz. Curator and director of the Football Museum, co-author the Brazilian masses engaged in and won. and editor of Aprazível Edições, is a professor of Brazilian culture at They made football their own and gave it its wings. PUC/RJ and was the Secretary of Culture and Sports for the State of Rio de Janeiro. This text was taken from the book Futebol, a Paixão At that time emerges the first interracial star do Brasil [Football, Brazil’s Passion], published by the Clube dos with a very complicated name: Friedenreich. Treze, and edited by Fernando Bueno and Eduardo Bueno. With such a name he could only have been the son of a German father, with green eyes, and a black mother, a laundress... The Football Museum was opened in September 2008 in the bowels of the , in São Paulo. It is the product of a joint partnership between the State of São Paulo, the City of São Paulo, the Fundação Roberto Marinho, the Friedenreich was beyond competent. Brazilian Ministry of Culture, along with private donors. And Brazil began to show the whole world, with pride, With over 1,500 images and six hours of videos on display, the Football Museum that we were a country that could accept our differences. celebrates the common football heritage of the Brazilian population, transmitted And make out of this mixture a delicious interracial fruit. by oral tradition — a rare thing in a country where memory is often undervalued. Few see the Football Museum as a museum in the strict sense of the term, but as an interactive event. So now you know why there is a ball on the Brazilian flag. The museum narrates the history of 20th Century Brazil through the Background And there is another, which pulsates and is vibrant, in Room, the Heroes Room, the Rite of Passage Room (dedicated to the 1950 World your heart.This is your history. Cup loss), and the World Cups Room. The Background Room contains 400 large-scale, floor-to-ceiling, photographs You made it. that narrate this saga, from 1890 to 1930. Videos are also displayed. Next, the Heroes Room covers the period between 1930 and 1950, when the country creates The Brazil we try to understand is the country that its idols and enshrines them in the pantheon of Brazilian culture: Villa-Lobos7, 8 9 10 emerged in the beginning of the 20th century, when Drummond, Niemeyer , Mario de Andrade, , Portinari , Jorge Amado11 and — why not? — Leônidas da Silva12 and Domingos da Guia13. The one’s life was no longer previously determined as it football player is also a national hero, a character of great importance to the was before. Industrial Revolution, mass production, formation of national identity. Our football idols are as representative of our world wars, the redefining of borders, everything cultural vitality as our icons in art, literature, theater, and music. happened unexpectedly. Actions were defined by At the Football Museum, the past is as much what one sees as what one imagines. Everyone who goes there leaves the place with a story of their own. One of the urgency, by incessant movement, by rhythmic noises most extraordinary things discovered during the implementation of this project of machines and the sounds of cities, by explosive was that it made no sense to display the goals. The important thing was to retell inventions. The gramophone took singers from them. Each person tells it in a different way. For this reason, every goal displayed theaters to living rooms. Cinema created a world of at the museum is narrated by different fans or football critics. The museum’s project adapted to the architecture of the stadium, with displays movement that propelled passions. Freud revealed the and walls installed beneath the stands. Each space was conceived to be fully unconscious, which controls us against our own will, experienced by the spectator, in an interactive and playful game. It is a rupture we who believed to have it all under control. Football with archaic views and expectations about museums, and the fear of getting really was the right sport for a world in which everything had close to what is exhibited. This space was conceived to allow and encourage each visitor’s imagination. And, above all, to let loose the visitor’s imagination. been turned upside down.

7 Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959): A Brazilian composer, Villa-Lobos was one of the most prominent names of the modernism movement in music. He mastered mixing elements of Brazilian folk music and the European Classical tradition, as seen in his best-known piece, the “Bachianas Brasileiras” [“Brazilian Bachian-pieces”]. 8 Oscar Niemeyer (1907-) is the architect responsible for most of Brasilia’s public buildings and many other modernist buildings in Brazil. Being a Pritzker winner, Niemeyer is one of the most influential modernist architects in the world. 9 Rachel de Queiroz (1910-2003): Brazilian author and journalist, was the first female member of Academia Brasileira de Letras [Brazilian Academy of Letters]. Memorial de Maria Moura and O Quinze are two of her best-known works. 10 Candido Portinari (1903-1962) was one of the greatest Brazilian painters and a prominent practitioner of neo-realism style in painting. One of his works, the panel “Guerra e Paz” [“War and Peace”] is in the United Nations building in New York. 11 Jorge Amado (1912-2001) was on of the most important Brazilian writers, whose works were translated into 49 languages. Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos, Capitães de Areia and Gabriela, Cravo e Canela are some of his greatest books. Many of his works were adapted into films, plays and soap operas. 12 Leônidas da Silva (1913-2004): A football player, Leônidas played for Brazil in two World Cups (1934 e 1938). Creator of the “bicycle kick”, he is regarded to be one of the best football players in the world. 13 Domingos da Guia (1912-2000) was a Brazilian football player. He played for Corinthians and Flamengo, and for Brazil in the 1938 World Cup. FOOTBALL • 111 Football and national identity

By Luiz Carlos Ribeiro

To write about football is to write about the heart and soul of human beings and societies. It points to places unreachable by reason. Places of passions and feelings that blur the limits of rationality. It is a phenomenon of strong emotional involvement, part of the identity process of nations – and, for this reason, it is ingrained in the contemporary world.

112 • FOOTBALL Conteúdo Expresso Football is part of Brazilian everyday life.

In Brazil, national identity is enmeshed with the meaning. Like every cultural phenomenon, the power mythical imagination associated with football. For of football is more symbolic than real. And in Brazil, some, Brazilian football represents the synthesis of football is a strong part of collective imagination, our interracial and malandro1 “national character”. a comprehensive phenomenon that join together For others, Brazil’s love for soccer is no more than a ordinary men, politicians, and even intellectuals, who drug, an alienation, an escape from the real Brazil. wish to “think” Brazil. What kind of Brazil is this? This is a false dichotomy. Football is passion, so everything surrounding it, for better or worse, is “Football explains Brazil.” “If we can change intense and moving. As happens with any playful football, we can change Brazil.” We often hear event, this contradiction is what gives the game its these phrases. Football has become a theater for

1 Malandro can be used as a noun or an adjective, always referring to someone who is notably resourceful, smart and a little mischievous.

FOOTBALL • 113 each and every one of our social relationships, a Football explains Brazil because the construction of the representation of the deepest forces that shape our idea “Brazil” is already one of the pillars of our culture. politics, culture and social formation. Football explains Brazil as much as our religious syncretism or our hidden racism also explain Brazil. However, while one must inevitably agree to this identification between football and Brazil, one One of the keys to understanding the umbilical link must also acknowledge that this is a historically between Brazil and football can be found in the constructed phenomenon. It is not an act of Nature. country’s intellectual and ideological trajectory of the One must reflect on how this deep connection came last 100 years. Football appeared in Brazil at the end to be, starting from when football appeared in Brazil. of the 19th century, with the arrival of a great many European immigrants. In most Brazilian cities, clubs of Portuguese, Italian, German, or some other origin were started. These different ethnic clubs are the origins of Vasco da Gama (1898), Palestra Itália (the current FOOTBALL Palmeiras, 1914, or Cruzeiro, 1921) or Coritiba (1909). PLAYERS Although English immigration was limited in Brazil, many clubs were started by companies – including Edmundo – 1965 the railroad company – directed by English engineers or technicians. After all, modern football is a British Position: forward creation. Clubs: Vasco, Palmeiras, Flamengo, Corinthians, Fiorentina, Santos, Napoli, As such, we can state that, within the context of Cruzeiro, Fluminense late 1800s’ capitalism, the introduction of football Brazilian national team: (1992-2000, in Brazil was part of the structural process of forced 36 games, 9 goals) modernization of economy and society. The coffee economy, the abolition of slavery, the arrival of immigrants, as well as the end of the Imperial The forceful idea that football is a phenomenon regime, set the stage for the transformation of that unified Brazilian society, and shaped the way Brazilian society and to the adoption of the new Brazilians came to see themselves as a nation, is rules of financial and industrial capitalism. an old construction. As such, it has gained roots in the social imagination of the country, to the point The impact of modernization demanded a re-organizing that this idea seems to be “natural”. In fact, its of Brazilian society in its economic, social, and cultural permanence in Brazilian imagination is founded on aspects. Football is in itself a manifestation of this a “natural” argument: the inseparability of football modernization. And, for this reason, its implementation and the Brazilian people. This idea, though still generated endless discussion. For example, among very present, was even more deeply ingrained in our first chroniclers: Coelho Neto was an optimist our culture. Many different people helped build this regarding football; Lima Barreto, on the other hand, imaginary construction, from ordinary brick layers viewed football as a negative foreign imposition. such as the interracial Garrincha or the black Pelé, to The speed of modernization contributed to dissolve the great ideologues of national hegemony. ethnic differences and to forme a new national culture,

114 • FOOTBALL defined by an original – which was combined with endemic social inequality inherited by a patriarchal society of landowners and slavery. FOOTBALL As in England and other countries, football quickly became popular. What had originally been a pastime PLAYERS of the elites, by the early 1930s had become a 1966 passionate popular sport. Romário – Position: forward The birth of this new order – republican, secular, Clubs: Vasco, Flamengo, PSV Eindhoven and free of slavery – demanded a political and (Netherlands), Barcelona, Valencia ideological shift. Many steps were taken towards (Spain), Fluminense this national construction, and for this reason we Brazilian national team: 1987-2005 speak of the formation of a Brazilian identity. (70 games, 55 goals)

Many people participated in this symbolic construction, but a few stand out, specially those who used football – or samba or carnival – as the of an identity. What did Brazil’s face look like? Was it basis for their arguments. As there is no precise the face of Macunaíma, “the hero without character”4 – starting point of this identity building process, we neither white, nor amerindian, nor black – or was it the shall start at a somewhat arbitrary point. face of the “bandeirantes”5 who colonized our interior?

One can safely take the 1920s, and the two decades that It was during the 1930s and 1940s that the symbolic followed, as reference. An early sign can be identified reformulation of Brazil was more strongly felt. The in Mario de Andrade’s healthy doubt regarding Oswald great force behind this was Presidente Vargas’s6 de Andrade’s2 intentions of defining a Brazilian identity. political project, that proposed a clear break from the The debate between cosmopolitan cannibalism – the past and the creation of a new nation and a new man. Brazilian identity of the Andrades – and green-and- The liberal and racial legacy, that imagined Brazilians yellow xenophobia3 is another sign of a country in search as a white utopia7, had lost steam as a political project.

2 Mario and Oswald de Andrade, also know as the Andrade brothers, were writers, poets and art critics. They are the most prominent figures in Brazilian modernism – whose highlight, the “Semana de Arte Moderna” [Modern Art’s Week] that took place in São Paulo, in 1922, was partially a creation of the Andrade’s. 3 The Andrades defended a cosmopolitan Brazilian identity, that was formed by many influences, even foreign ones, that would be appropriated – cannibalized, even –, in order to form a Brazilian identity that would be modern, worldly and one of its kind. Other intellectuals defended a more purist view of Brazilian identity, an identity that should be formed only by the traits that were unquestionably ours, without “contamination” forms of foreign ideas. 4 The classic novel Macunaíma, by Mario de Andrade, portrays an anti-hero named Macunaíma, who is defined as “the hero without character”. Mario de Andrade, one of the pillars of Brazilian modernism, wanted to criticize, in a comic way, the traits usually associated to the indigenous people of Brazil and the attraction that São Paulo – “the big city”, symbol of progress and industrialization – had upon Macunaíma. 5 The Bandeirantes were Brazilian colonial scouts who took part in the 16th – 18th century expeditions called Bandeiras [Portuguese for “flags”]. The Bandeiras began with a cycle of Indian hunting and were later oriented towards the search of stones and precious metals. 6 Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (1882 -1954) was the president of Brazil from 1930 to 1945 and from 1950 to his suicide in 1954. His government brought about social and economic changes that helped modernize the country. Although denounced by some as an unprincipled dictator, Vargas was revered by his followers as the “Father of the Poor,” for his battle against big business and large landowners. His greatest accomplishment was to guide Brazil as it weathered the far-reaching consequences of the Great Depression and the accompanying polarization between communism and fascism during his long tenure in office. 7 The theory of racial whitening, inspired by the ideas elaborated in Europe about racial determinism, was developed in Brazil mainly between the end of the Imperial regime (1889) and World War I (1914) by writers like Silvio Romero, Oliveira Vianna and Nina Rodrigues, and had significant influence on Brazilian immigration policies adopted during that period. The dominant idea was to attract European immigrants, so that they would “whiten” the nation with their presence and through miscegenation.

FOOTBALL • 115 has corrected the social distance that would otherwise have remained between the master’s house and the tropical forest; between the master’s house and the FOOTBALL slave quarters.” The quote below, written during the PLAYERS 1938 World Cup in France, right after Brazil’s victory over Czechoslovakia (putting Brazil in the semifinals), typifies his thoughts on miscegenation, social Rivaldo – 1972 democracy and football in Brazil: Position: forward Clubs: Corinthians, Palmeiras, A new and unmistakable Brazilian style of football has just Deportivo La Coruña, Barcelona, Milan, been defined, and this style is an expression of our mulatto Olympiakos (Greece) way, quick to assimilate, dominate, break into dance, Brazilian national team: 1993-2003 curves or songs, transforming the angular European (74 games, 34 goals) or North American techniques to our liking, whether in game or architecture. Because this is our mulatto way – World War I accelerated the crisis of liberalism and psychologically, to be Brazilian is to be mulatto – to be the evolutionist belief in an unstoppable wave of Dionysian and an enemy of Apollonian formalism.9 progress. Now, social harmony demanded the end of racial differences. National identity building required There is a clear convergence between his writings on resolving differences. A new synthesis was required. Brazilian civilization and football. After placing third And who defined this best was Gilberto Freyre: in the World Cup in France, Gilberto Freyre began to “psychologically, to be Brazilian is to be mulato.”8 include football in his books as an example of the success of the mulatto in defining a Brazilian identity.

THE “FLAMBOYANT MULATO”: SYNTHESIS It is in the book by Mario Rodrigues Filho, O Negro no OF THE BRAZILIAN MAN AND PLAYER Futebol Brasileiro, from 1947, that we begin to identify In reality, there are few writings by Gilberto Freyre Freyre’s vision influence over other football writers, specifically about football. Aside from a few notes even among academics. in his Sociologia [Sociology], and from his preface to the book O Negro no Futebol Brasileiro [Blacks in It was no coincidence that Gilberto Freyre wrote the Brazilian Football] (1947), by Mario Rodrigues Filho, preface of Mario Filho’s book. In the preface, Freyre there are only a few chronicles in print. However, reaffirms his theory that the Brazilian civilizing effort his writings about Brazilian football have a common happens through racial integration: thesis: the integration of races produced in Brazil a unique kind of player, the flamboyant mulato. The chapter of Brazilian football history that is This was the synthesis of our social democracy: portrayed here constitutes also a valuable contribution “miscegenation happened so extensively here that it to the history of Brazilian society and culture in its

8 FREYRE, Gilberto. Sociologia. Rio de Janeiro: José Olympio, 1945, p. 432. Mulato is the word used to define someone who is born of the mixture of the white and black races. Casa Grande & Senzala [Master’s House & Slave Quarters], published by Gilberto Freyre in 1933, is one of the key books to un- derstand the cultural formation of the Brazilian people. Freyre was the first important author to praise African heritage and to associate positive traits to miscegenation. Freyre is criticized, though, for presenting a romanticized version of the miscegenation process, lacking to emphasize the violence black and indigenous women were subjected to in Brazilian patriarchal society – and, specially, in the miscegenation process. 9 FREYRE. G. “Prefácio”. In: RODRIGUES FILHO, Mario. O Negro no Futebol Brasileiro. 4ª ed. Rio de Janeiro: Mauad, 2003, p. 24. 116 • FOOTBALL transition from a predominantly rural to an urban society. The most suggestive pages in the book by Mario Filho present us with the conflict between these FOOTBALL TRIVIA two great forces – rationality and irrationality – in the behavior and the lives of a people. Of the Brazilian The first football game in Brazil was played people. People from a hybrid interracial society, with in 1895 in São Paulo. The team formed by the Amerindian and African, as well as European, roots. employees of the Companhia de Gás [Gas Company] defeated the team of the São Paulo I believe I’m not saying anything new when I say that, Railway, by 4-2. behind the solid institution that football has become in our country, there are old psychic energies and irrational impulses, accumulated and condensed over years, in search of sublimation.10 Conteúdo Expresso The second championship boosted Brazilian people’s self-esteem (President João Goulart and Garrincha).

10 FREYRE. G. “Prefácio”, op. cit. FOOTBALL • 117 Freyre emphatically establishes a link between blacks in football, is not just seen as a 20th century “football history” and “Brazilian social and cultural occurrence. In the writings of Freyre, one has the history” in the formation of Brazilian identity, as impression that the prospect of social mobility the result of the sublimation performed by the was there from the beginning, as part of his thesis flamboyant mulatto. regarding the cordiality between the masters and the slaves. Referring to the benevolence the Portuguese The central thesis in the work of Mario Filho/Freyre master showed the slaves – specially regarding the contains two complementary elements: while it black women and their illegitimate children, which describes in aesthetic terms black people benefiting formed the social basis of our racial integration – from social mobility through football, this very social Freyre asserts that the colonizer’s attitude always improvement is perceived as key component to the “intended to favor, as much as possible, the social consolidation of our national identity. The success mobility of blacks.”11 of black people in Brazilian football – as exemplified in the glory of Arthur Friedenreich, son of a German In this way, Freyre and Mario Filho – among others – father and a black mother, and Leônidas da Silva, consolidated this imaginary identification between son of a Portuguese father and a black mother – football and Brazil. Given its aesthetic beauty, represents the consolidation of a “Brazilian identity.” football stylized Brazil’s image.

It is interesting that the sublimation thesis of the VICTORIES ON THE FIELD Brazilian nation, as evidenced in the triumph of Brazilian football was not only a fabrication of ideological discourses. Victories on the field – at home and abroad – legitimized these discourses. As an example of this, Mario Filho’s book, originally published in 1947, had a new edition in 1962, soon FOOTBALL after the World Cup victories in 1958 and 1962. These victories not only redeemed players of mixed PLAYERS race defeated by Uruguay at Maracanã stadium in 195012, but also validated Gilberto Freyre’s thesis of Ronaldo – 1976 racial integration as the basis of our civilizing effort Position: forward and our social harmony. Clubs: Cruzeiro, PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona, Internazionale, Real Madrid, The 1950s was a decade of modernization: bossa Milan, Corinthians nova, Juscelino13 and Brasília were our symbols, to Brazilian national team: 1994-2006 which we added the football victories in Sweden (97 games, 62 goals) and Chile. Garrincha, Pelé and Nilton Santos erased the defeat of 1950. We were no longer the

11 FREYRE, Gilberto. Casa-Grande & Senzala: Formação da família brasileira sob o regime de economia patriarcal. 2º tomo. 14ª edição. Rio de Janeiro: Livraria José Olympio Editora, 1969, p 578. 12 The defeat in the 1950 World Cup, in a final match at the Maracanã Stadium, was a national trauma. Brazil needed only a draw to become champion, but lost 2-1 to Uruguay. More than 200,000 people took more than half an hour to leave Maracanã Stadium, in shock and tears. 13 During his presidency (1956-1961), Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira built Brazil’s modern capital, Brasília, in order to promote development in a largely unpopulated area, Brazil’s Midwest. His term in office was a period of economic development and modernization. Brasília’s architecture is a major statement of Juscelino’s view of Brazilian future. 118 • FOOTBALL mongrels of the world, the term coined by Nelson Rodrigues14 to explain our sense of inferiority: “By ‘mongrel complex’ [‘complexo de vira-lata’] I mean the position of inferiority in which Brazilians place FOOTBALL themselves regarding the rest of the world. This happens in all areas and, above all, in football.”15 PLAYERS

Nelson himself wrote about our redemption Ronaldinho Gaúcho – 1980 in 1962, calling for the “seventy five million Garrinchas,” no longer mongrels, and saying that Position: forward “the issue for each one of us is to be, or not to be, Clubs: Grêmio, Paris Saint-Germain (France), Barcelona, Milan Garrincha.”16 Furthermore, he states, what allowed Brazilian national team: 1999-2009 us to overcome our inferiority complex and win the (87 games, 32 goals) World Cup “was the mystery of our bars and the charm of our street corners, and the sobs of our sidewalks, and the euphoria of our scoundrels.” In summary, nothing more than “a touch of Brazilian malandragem.”17 This interpretation might reinforce symbolic power of football, the dictatorship acted in the image of Brazilians as depicted by the hero a more organic manner, by indicating key characters, Macunaíma. allocating resources, etc.

The connection Brazil–football had been sealed. The What the military sought with this was gaining country did not appear to exist outside the pitch. legitimacy. They wanted to associate the regime’s image with love of sports and Brazilian strength WHAT ABOUT THE MILITARY DICTATORSHIP? on the international arena – to transform Brazilian In spite of the much talked “intervention” performed triumphs into regime triumphs. In order to achieve in Brazilian culture by the military, there was very this, the use of violence is not enough. Persuasion little change regarding football during military is also necessary. The effort to identify regime with dictatorship (1964-1984). What military governments nation, to fuse government and homeland, required did was to take advantage of the culture of football, the aggregation of symbols that would give credence because the image of victory and social harmony to the intended association. Football – as a cultural- was fundamental to the regime. entertainment activity – was a means to strengthen this association. As such, the intellectual and political attempt to associate Brazil’s image — and Brazilians — to However, the desire of political leaders to win victories on the field is anterior to the military games, so as to associate success in football field dictatorship of the 1960s and 1970s. Given the with the image of the regime, was not enough:

14 Nelson Rodrigues (1912-1980) wrote chronicles about football to magazines and newspapers. As a playwright, Nelson was a skilful chronicler of Bra- zil’s urban characters in the 1940s and 1950s, depicting in a very interesting and ironic way the contradictions and false morality that were inherent to apparently perfect middle-class Brazilian families. The sexual subtext of his plays caused some kind of scandal at the time. 15 Manchete Esportiva, 5.31.1958. 16 Fatos & Fotos, 6.23.1962. 17 Fatos & Fotos, June of 1962. FOOTBALL • 119 success depends on a tapestry of complex events. Proof is that, during the 20 years of military dictatorship, Brazil was only victorious in 1970. FOOTBALL After winning its second World Cup in 1962, Brazil PLAYERS displayed an embarrassing performance in 1966, when it was sent home in the round of sixteen. In 1974, in Germany, Brazil ended in fourth. In 1978, Kaká – 1982 playing in a militarized Argentina, after the highly suspicious result of 6-0 over Peru, the Argentines Position: forward would not allow Brazil to reach the final, relegating Clubs: São Paulo, Milan, Real Madrid it to third place18. Finally, in 1982, in Spain, even Brazilian national team: 2002-2010 though Brazil had a very skillful team (Junior, (76 games, 26 goals) Toninho Cerezo, Sócrates, Zico and Falcão), it lost to Italy in the quarterfinals, and ended in fifth place. Conteúdo Expresso In 1970, success in football was used to legitimate political ideas of the time.

18 The rivalry between Brazil and Argentina is legendary in the football world. 120 • FOOTBALL I mention these results in order to show that the football field has its own autonomy. The off-field will of Brazilian dictators did not necessarily result in FOOTBALL TRIVIA victories. Specially after the 1970 victory, the military government invested greatly in preparing the national Until the 1950 World Cup, Brazil played in white team for the 1974 World Cup. During the 1978 and shirts. The traumatic loss in the final called for a 1982 World Cups, military authority was already in change in uniform, and the now traditional yellow decline, so it lacked the same drive for legitimacy. In shirt made its first appearance before the 1954 other words, the regime was so discredited that not World Cup. even an association with the national team promised to be effective. In conclusion, sports can be used for political ends, but in most cases the return is not equal to the investment.

AND TODAY? The project of national ideology lost momentum and Brazil has experienced, since the end of the in parallel there has been a process of dissociating military dictatorship in the 1980s, an ongoing the player from his country of birth. The powerful process of democratization, not only as a civil international football market, now one of the biggest state, but as a society. At the same time, the entertainment industries, has changed football into process of restructuring global economy – known more of a product and less of a passion. as globalization – promoted market over state. In this case, for example, both Europe with its social Today, if we lose a World Cup, we won’t feel quite so benefits, as Brazil with its military government, humiliated, we won’t think of ourselves as mongrels. suffered the effects of global market. National projects have lost steam in favor of multinational Nevertheless, football has become so ingrained in market will. Brazilian life that the idea that “football explains Brazil” has become too easy of an explanation for These structural changes were decisive in those who try to explain the development process of transforming football. The explosion of the Brazilian football or even of the country. entertainment industry – initially with cable TV, followed by the Internet –, in association with the The explanation for the existence and permanence explosion of sports marketing, transformed football of this theory in Brazilian culture can be found both into a very profitable product. in Brazilian political thought and in the specificity of the development of football in Brazil. Starting in the 1980s, football went through social and cultural transformations, becoming a media Luiz Carlos Ribeiro. Master in Social History at the University success and a global phenomenon. As a result, of São Paulo and PhD in History at the Université de Paris III, specially in Brazil, there was no longer need to use it is a professor at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR). He to legitimize ideological projects, as had happened is the editor of the book Futebol e Globalização [Football and between 1930 and 1985. The country’s focus was no Globalization], published in 2007. He is currently coordinating longer on the birth of a nation, but on the search of the study group “Futebol e Sociedade” [Football and Society] competitiveness in the global market. (PGHIS/UFPR).

FOOTBALL • 121 Football in Portuguese

Naturally, football has left its contribution to the Portuguese language spoken in Brazil, as the game originated many expressions, used in a variety of situations. In the following examples, we will see some of the most common ones used in Brazilian everyday life:

122 • FOOTBALL A esta altura do campeonato Bater um bolão Literal translation: At this height of the Championship. Literal translation: Hit a big ball. Meaning or equivalent expression: At this point of Meaning or equivalent expression: To do something the game, at this point in life, or at this point in some really well. specific event.

Cair pelas tabelas Aos 45 do segundo tempo Literal translation: Fall by the side walls. Literal translation: At the 45th minute of the second Meaning or equivalent expression: To be very weary. half. Meaning or equivalent expression: At the eleventh hour. Carregar o time nas costas Literal translation: Carry the team on your back. Meaning or equivalent expression: To do everything, Baixar a bola when others are not doing their fair share of work. Literal translation: Lower the ball. Meaning or equivalent expression: Cool it down. Chutar Literal translation: Kick. Bater na trave Meaning or equivalent expression: To take a wild Literal translation: Hit the post. guess. Meaning or equivalent expression: To get close. Almost there. Chutar para escanteio Literal translation: Kick to the corner. Bola murcha Meaning or equivalent expression: Get rid of. Literal translation: Empty ball. Meaning or equivalent expression: When someone is feeling sad. Something that does not work quite well. Comer a bola Literal translation: Eat the ball. Meaning or equivalent expression: To be really good Bola pra frente at doing something. Literal translation: Ball forward. Meaning or equivalent expression: Let’s move on, let’s go forward. Correr para o abraço Literal translation: to the embrace. Meaning or equivalent expression: Mission accomplished, time to celebrate.

FOOTBALL • 123 Dar bola Estar com a bola toda Literal translation: Give ball. Literal translation: To be full of the ball. Meaning or equivalent expression: Give attention to, Meaning or equivalent expression: To be in control, to flirt with. to be full of one’s self.

Dar tratos à bola Estar com fome de bola Literal translation: Treat the ball. Literal translation: To be hungry for the ball. Meaning or equivalent expression: To think, to focus on. Meaning or equivalent expression: To really want to do something.

Dar uma bola fora Literal translation: Throw the ball out. Estar na do pênalti Meaning or equivalent expression: Commit a gaffe. Literal translation: To be at the penalty spot. Meaning or equivalent expression: To be already there, almost accomplishing something. Do primeiro time Literal translation: From the first team. Meaning or equivalent expression: VIP. Fazer o meio de campo Literal translation: To do the midfield. Meaning or equivalent expression: To mediate, to Driblar connect things or people. Literal translation: Dribble. Meaning or equivalent expression: Bypass. Jogar na retranca Literal translation: To play defensively. Enterrar o time Meaning or equivalent expression: To be cautious, Literal translation: Bury the team. careful. Meaning or equivalent expression: To do something really wrong, causing damage to ones’ colleagues. Jogar nas onze Literal translation: To play on all eleven. Entrar de sola Meaning or equivalent expression: To be versatile. Literal translation: Come in with the sole of the foot. Meaning or equivalent expression: To pursue something aggressively.

124 • FOOTBALL Jogar no time de Pendurar as chuteiras Literal translation: To play on someone’s team. Literal translation: To hangs one’s cleats. Meaning or equivalent expression: To like someone, Meaning or equivalent expression: To retire, or stop to identify with someone. doing something.

Jogar para a torcida Pisar na bola Literal translation: Play to please the audience. Literal translation: Step on the ball. Meaning or equivalent expression: To show off, in Meaning or equivalent expression: Make a mistake. order to please rather than to achieve actual results.

Show de bola Levar cartão vermelho Literal translation: Ball show. Literal translation: Get a red card. Meaning or equivalent expression: To perform Meaning or equivalent expression: To be abandoned, something brilliantly. to be fired.

Tirar o time de campo Marcar em cima Literal translation: Remove the team from the field. Literal translation: Mark on top. Meaning or equivalent expression: To abandon Meaning or equivalent expression: Pay close something, to go away. attention to.

Vestir a camisa Marcar gol contra Literal translation: To put on the shirt. Literal translation: Score one’s own goal. Meaning or equivalent expression: To adopt a cause. Meaning or equivalent expression: To act against oneself, one’s team, or one’s colleagues.

Não mexer em time que está ganhando Literal translation: Don’t change a team that is winning. Meaning or equivalent expression: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

FOOTBALL • 125